


The First Hunger Games

by TheJackieMo



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-08
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-07 08:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8790106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheJackieMo/pseuds/TheJackieMo
Summary: The Districts have lost the war. Life in Panem has taken on a sense of normalcy. But when the Capitol announces a new competition involving the children on the country, will Stacey Burrows's life change for the better, or worse?





	1. Chapter 1

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 1

It had been almost 30 years since the beginning of the revolution. I hadn't been born yet, not even thought of.

I had been told that, before the war, a girl like me would be attending high school and would go shopping for pretty things. After the war though, that wasn't possible. The Capitol had stripped all 13 districts of whatever wealth the war had left them with and reduced the people to little more than beggars. Somehow though, some people, like my family, had been more fortunate than others.

My father used to be in construction, but slightly changed fields after realizing that carpentry held more money in my district. My family was now considered among those "better off" in our district. There wasn't too much money, but it kept us off the streets.

"Stacey!" I turned to the direction of the voice that called my name. It was my little brother, Ryan. He had just been released from school. He was 14 and it was his last year.

"Hey kid, what's up." Ryan dropped his school bag in the doorway. I smiled at him before resuming my work on that night's dinner: chicken stew.

"Sofie."

"What about Sofie?"

"She's going to the district social with Ryan _Sloring_." I chuckled.

"Maybe she got her Ryans mixed up."

"Ugh! This is no laughing matter, Stacey! This is serious!"

"Yes, you're right." I turned away from him, so he wouldn't see me trying to fight back my smile. "I'm sorry. So, what're you going to do about it?"

"I don't know! Ugh!" He stomped away to his room and mumbled "girls are stupid."

"Hey! I heard that!"

About 45 minutes later, dinner was ready and I called Ryan over to eat. He did so quickly and ran back to his room. I could only hope that it was homework he was so eager to return to. As I sat down with my own bowl, I heard a knock on the front door. When I opened it, I was greeted with the face of my best friend, Kitty. We would sometimes joke that, when she was born, her parents hadn't agreed on a name and, just at that moment, a cat walked by. We knew it wasn't the case, but it made us laugh. Once we sat back down though, I offered her some stew and we both started eating.

"What do you think about that meeting tomorrow?" Kitty asked, her mouth full. She was addressing the district-wide meeting that was to be held in the district square the next day. Attendance was mandatory, and if anyone failed to show up, their home would be raided. I wasn't really sure how the peacekeepers would be able to tell in any one person didn't go to the meeting, but a part of me didn't want to know. It was rumored that every district was scheduled to have the same meeting throughout the next few days.

"I don't know….maybe they're going to announce that someone in the Capitol bought a new dress." That made her laugh. The rest of our meal was filled with other meaningless chit chat.

"I'm taking some of this out to my dad. Wana come?"

"You mean a chance to see _Taylor_? Why _wouldn't_ I?" I thought it was pretty creepy, but Kitty had some kind of weird crush on my dad.

My father's shop was next door, so we had to go outside in order to give him his dinner. He sometimes worked late, making sure all his projects were finished in time. When he got into one of his working moods, he sometimes forgot to come home to eat. I didn't mind bringing him his meals though; it gave us some time to talk about things he was working on. If he was especially weighed down, I would even help him get something finished.

When I was younger, and got back from school, I would usually go over to his shop, instead of going straight home. It gave me a chance to learn how to do what he did, so I wouldn't go hungry when I grew up.

"Hi dad." I said before realizing he wasn't seated in his usual spot. In fact, I couldn't see him at all.

"Taylor!" Kitty called out, wandering around the front area of the room. I put the tray of food I was holding on the nearest table and made my way towards the back of the shop.

"Stacey?" I jumped as my father walked out from behind a rather ornate dresser. It couldn't be for anybody in our district, by the looks of it.

"What's this?" I asked, motioning at the dresser.

"Special order from the Capitol. They sent the plans for it last week. The numbers didn't all add up, so I had to make some adjustments. I think they'll be happy though."

"It's very pretty." Kitty chimed in, having discovered our location. "Oh! Taylor! I brought you some dinner. Don't want you getting hungry." I rolled my eyes and gave my dad a look of exasperation. He returned it with a knowing smile.

"Thanks, Kitty. It's almost done. Maybe another day or two, and it'll be on its way home."

"So soon?" I asked.

"Mhm. Steven, from a few streets down, came by asking for work. Apparently his family's having a rough go and need some extra income. So, the boy's been helping me out for the past few days."

"Oh." I was a little jealous that my father had looked elsewhere for help, but I understood that Steven needed the money, so I didn't complain.

He walked with Kitty and me to the front of the shop, where he dusted off the counter, sat down and began eating his stew. If it had gotten cold, he gave no indication of it.

"So what are my two favorite ladies up to tonight?"

"I don't know. Maybe we'll see if the Capitol's airing anything interesting on TV."

"Nothing past 8."

"Yes, yes. I know." Television was supplied by the Capitol and was free in our district until 8pm. After that, we would be charged for it. It was pretty annoying sometimes, if there was something good on any of the five channels. Most times thought, there was either static or a continuous video montage of the 13 districts.

"Ryan home yet?"

"Yea, he came in a while ago." I turned to leave, gesturing towards Kitty to follow me, but she was too busy staring at my dad. "Kit!" She jumped up and speed walked out the door, without even glancing at me. I shook my head behind her and waved goodbye to my father.

When I returned to the house, Kitty already had the TV on and was switching through the five channels. Static.

Static.

Montage.

Static.

The fifth channel was airing the broadcast about the following day's district meeting. It was pretty generalized, so it must have been aired in all the districts. It featured a tall, tanned, gangly woman standing at a podium, addressing the audience. Her purple highlights distracted me for a few moments, but when I heard her mention District 13, my district, my interest piqued.

I sat in the tattered rocking chair in the corner of the room, while Kitty resigned herself to lying, stomach down, on the floor. She swung her feet back and forth as the woman in strange clothing continued to explain the procedure expected of the people in the districts, when attending the meetings on their assigned days.

"And remember: dress to impress!" she finished her speech. After the camera showed a shot of her smiling face, the entire broadcast started over again. Kitty and I hadn't seen the beginning before, but this time we were able to see that a man with graying hair originally stood at the podium. He looked very stern as he read of a series of announcements, mainly concerning the Capitol.

"I don't have anything interesting to wear tomorrow." Kitty complained.

"How dressed up do you think they mean?"

"Oh, I don't know. It doesn't matter, because the only nice thing I had burned away in the fire." Kitty's house caught fire two years ago. It wasn't too terrible, most of the house was fine, but it started in the kitchen, and the fire burned through a part of that wall, into Kitty's bedroom, giving bad smoke damage to the entire space.

"Maybe I have something you can borrow?" She perked up at that and followed me to my room. It was small, without much standing space, but that didn't mean anything to Kit. She sat on my cot as I pulled out semi-appropriate dresses from a drawer.

I owned three. The first one was knee length with a flowery pattern on the top, with a dark blue skirt. It was several years old and didn't fit me anymore. I thought it might work for Kitty; she was quite petite anyway. I handed it to her to try on. It was a little snug, but would do. She liked it and I guess that's what really mattered. I let her keep it.

We got bored after a short while of debating which of the other two dresses I looked better in. We ultimately decided on a soft yellow sundress, with a big light blue flower on the right hip.

"What time is it?"

"Hm, I think it's probably past eight," Kitty responded.

"No more TV then."

"No matter. I should be getting back home anyway."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Mama probably wants some help with Claire and Bobby." We both smirked, thinking of her younger siblings, twins and four years old.

"Well, have fun with that."

"Oh yeah, it's gonna be super fun," she replied, her words dripping with sarcasm. As she turned left outside the house, I closed the door behind her and noticed that I hadn't cleaned the kitchen after making dinner.

My father walked in as I was washing the dishes.

"Kit left?"

"Mhm, a little while ago."

"Oh. Alright then." He took off his boots and sat them in their usual spot, next to the door. "I'm going to take a bath. Could you help me with the water?"

"Sure, just a sec." I said, drying my hands.

Our home was one of several in our area that had a well to supply it. For little things, like dish washing, we used a small pump by the sink, but for bathing, we needed to go outside and get the water in buckets. It was a long process that took several trips to collect the necessary water, and I sometimes envied the poorer families that just bathed in the river, but then I reminded myself that they were unable to heat their water.

After nearly an hour, my father's bath was ready and I went back to cleaning the kitchen. I was tired, but thankfully, not sore. I had been helping my father get bath water for years so, by this point, I had reasonably strong muscles. I finished my work and checked to see if Ryan was sleeping yet. We would both be taking our baths the following morning, before the meeting.

I cracked his door open and saw him sprawled out on his cot. I shut it again and continued to the next door, my room. I changed from my day clothes, into an old, big, orange t-shirt and long, blue, flannel pants that had tiny, yellow stars on them. I tried to take good care of those pants; I felt like they were the only cute thing I owned.

The following morning I woke while it was still mostly dark out. I looked out the window and could see the horizon was just barely turning to the light purple that precedes the bright orange. I sat in my bed for a short while more, in case my eyes were tricking me and it was actually the middle of the night. But when I checked again, the sky was lighter than before, so I climbed out of bed and got dressed.

I looked to the pile of clothes in the corner from the past few days and remembered that I needed to do laundry. I decided I would do it when we all came back from the meeting.

As per our routine, I went into Ryan's room, tried to wake him, and he made a drowsy attempt at swatting me away. In the end though, I convinced him to get up, get dressed and help me get and heat the water needed for our baths. Because we had to fill our two tubs, it took twice as long as it did the previous night.

My father had woken up while Ryan and I were almost done heating the tubs of water, and by the time we finished our baths, he was fully dressed in his nicest shirt, had set out Ryan's clothes on his bed, and prepared our breakfast.

"My, my, don't you look pretty today," my father said, seeing me in my dress, with my red hair in a clip that my mother had given me.

"Thanks dad." I blushed, not used flattery. My brother walked in, with his light blue button down shirt.

"And what a strapping young man we have."

"Mmmm, " replied Ryan through a piece of toast he had stripped from the table.

When we all finished eating, we left and made our way to the plaza. Peacekeepers were there, ushering people into different directions. When we started walking towards a long set of chairs, one of the peacekeepers stopped us.

"Children in the center of the plaza."

"What for?"

"I've been told that children between the ages of twelve and eighteen are to report to the center of the plaza. Everyone else may take a seat."

"It's ok dad. We'll go. Meet back here after?" I asked.

"Sure." As I led Ryan away with the peacekeeper, I saw my dad slowly sit down as he watched us go.

"Young men to the right; ladies to the left." We followed instructions and, since I couldn't find Kitty yet, I started talking to some girls I knew from when I attended school. When Kit _did_ show up, she joined us.

It wasn't long before the speakers crackled and a man was standing at the podium at the front of the congregation.

"Good morning one and all," he read from a paper. He didn't look up at all. "It is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the first annual Hunger Games." I looked around to see if anyone else understood what this short, fat man was talking about. Most people were still staring at the podium, so I turned back to continue listening.

"It is for this competition that I will be selecting one young man and woman to travel to the Capitol and participate in this greatly anticipated competition." There was a growing commotion at the mention of traveling to the Capitol. Few of the people in our district had ever been there, and the ones that had were very old. I felt a bit of excitement pass through me.

The man went on to explain how the selection process worked and that the competition would be televised. I looked over to where my father had been seated. He had a frown on his face and his forehead was creased in what looked like something akin to confusion. He saw me looking at him. I gave him a bright smile. He returned it with a slight, supportive one.

Once more I turned back to the podium, as the red-faced, fat man was about to draw the name of the female contestant.

I hope I win.


	2. Chapter 2

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 2

"Stacey Burrows!"

I stood in shock as I heard my name called over the speakers. As Kitty and a few other girls congratulated me, and I realized I wasn't dreaming, a smile crept to my face. A peacekeeper approached me and I was escorted to the stage that the man at the podium stood at.

"Congratulations Miss Burrows. You are now the female representative for District Thirteen in this year's Hunger Games." All I could do was smile at his pudgy face. I was so excited and I didn't even know what the prize was yet!

"Now, if you please," Pudgy was trying to calm the crowd; the excitement had grown since I stepped onto the stage and, by that time, the assembly was quite loud. Once it had mostly quieted down, he continued. "It is time to choose a participant from District Thirteen's young men." He walked over to the second bowl, the one that held the boys' names.

"Ryan Burrows!"

I felt my jaw drop as I heard my brother's name called. What luck! Now our family would have double the chance of winning the contest!

I watched Ryan as he was escorted to the stage; I could tell he was trying not to run up to it. He was smiling just as much as I was. I searched the crowd for where my father had been seated and saw him wearing the same crinkled forehead and frown. I couldn't understand why he wasn't happy for us. Maybe he was thinking about the housework I wouldn't be able to do, like the laundry I had had planned to do when we were supposed to return home. He'd have to do it himself. Ryan would be missing the rest of the school year too. Oh well, we'd figure out what to do about that when we got back. I gave Ryan a tight hug as soon as he reached the stage.

"Well now, it looks like District Thirteen's tributes are brother and sister," the fat man said into his microphone, smiling. "Can we have a round of applause for these honorable young people!" Out of politeness, everyone clapped for us. I knew they were mostly jealous, and part of me relished in the fact. I found Kitty's face among the crowd and watched as she shouted 'that's my girl' in my direction.

The man finished what was left of his speech and several peacekeepers escorted the three of us to the town hall that stood behind the stage. Ryan and I were brought to a room to wait for our father to wish us luck; we were told family and friends would be allowed to do so. When he came, with two peacekeepers in tow, he still didn't look any happier. Slowly, he walked to us, leaving the peacekeepers in the hallway.

"Be careful, Stace," he said to me as he embraced me. "I don't trust them; something doesn't feel right. The Capitol has had it in for the Districts for too long to change their minds so suddenly now. There's got to be a catch." What my father said made sense, but I tried to imagine what the Capitol could be planning that could make a contest so bad. If I lose, I still get to see the Capitol and then I go home with nice stories. If I win, I get a prize, I get to see the Capitol, and I still get to go home with good stories. It's a win-win.

My father was still holding me as he waited for my response. I nodded my compliance and he pulled away, kissing the top of my head.

"Will you be alright?" I asked him.

"Sure. I'll manage."

"If you need help around the house, just ask Kit. She'll be more than happy to help."

"Will do."

He moved over to my brother and wrapped him in a warm hug.

"You take care of your sister, ok kid?"

"You got it."

"I love you both."

"We love you too," both of us replied. After our dad left, Ryan and I sat down, waiting for whatever came next. The door opened soon though, and Kitty and two friends of Ryan's stormed in. Immediately, Kitty raced up to me and hugged me.

"You're so lucky! I wish I could go with you!"

"Well, if you came with me, then you wouldn't be able to help my dad."

"You mean I get to spend every day with Taylor?"

"Someone has to help him around the house and make sure he doesn't starve." She hugged me even tighter.

"I won't let you down!"

Just then, we all heard the door open again and turned to see who else might have come. When I saw who it was though, I felt my stomach drop. Kitty and Ryan's friends were all visibly uncomfortable.

"Uh, we'll leave you guys alone. Good luck Stace. I love you."

"Love you too." I watched as the three of them left, steering around the new intruder.

"What're you doing here?"

"I came to wish my children good luck in the competition," my mother replied.

"Now you did. You can go now. Goodbye."

"Hi mom," I heard Ryan chime in.

"HI sweetheart. How are you? I've missed you." She strode over and gave him, what she must have believed to be, a warm embrace. Poor Ryan just stood there, awkwardly.

"How's Milo?" I asked, intending for my words to sting her. It didn't work.

"He's good. He's waiting outside."

"What about Felix and Blanc?"

"They're with their father." Felix and Blanc were my half-brothers. They were nine and seven, respectively. Their father was Milo, he owned two of the four bakeries in District 13. Needless to say, he was as wealthy as you could get in Panem, aside from living in the Capitol, which he could probably pull off. My mother, Grace, left my father four years after Ryan was born, as soon as she realized Milo fancied her. She disgusts me; she's been dead to me ever since.

After she stepped away from Ryan, she made as if to embrace me as well, but I backed away from her, as if her very touch would burn me. That seemed to put her back in her place; she stayed where she was.

"You're wearing the clip I sent you." I had forgotten I was wearing it. To be honest though, it was the prettiest thing I owned. Its presence had nothing to do with any connection I felt to her.

"What of it?" I responded defensively.

"Just an observation." Her discomfort was growing, I could tell. I looked to Ryan, who had sat down and busied himself by retying his shoes.

"You two are probably very excited. I'll let you enjoy yourselves then." As she was walking out the door, she turned back around. "I love you both very much." I didn't respond and, after a few seconds, I heard Ryan let out a bland 'yeah.'

After the door was closed and I was sure we were alone, I let myself relax in one of the plush couches.

"You know, I know she doesn't qualify for 'World's Greatest Mom' award, but you don't have to be such a bitch to her." My head popped up at Ryan's foul language, but I decided against berating him and, instead threw my head back against the chair.

"Hello Mr. and Miss Burrows." I practically jumped out of my seat. It was the fat man. I hadn't even heard him enter the room. "My name is Pierce Shelling, and I will be escorting you to the Capitol, and overseeing your activities there."

It was at that time that a peacekeeper walked in and informed us that the train that would be taking us to the Capitol was ready for us. I had heard of the train, having occasionally seen Capitol officials that traveled to the District by it, but I had never seen where it was. The peacekeeper brought us outside, where we boarded a small, bulky, dark green truck. I guessed the train was too far to walk, and I was right. The ride to the train took almost a half an hour.

I watched as we drove past the different buildings that made up District 13. At first, I would watch as people returned home to change out of their dress clothes and begin their usual daily activities. Occasionally I would spot a face I recognized, but we would pass too quickly for me to shout out a 'hello.' It wasn't long before we left the main part of the District though. Soon, the buildings became trees and, before I knew it, our car truck came to a stop.

I had never seen the train before, so I was able to spot the large, grey structure amid the trees. Pierce and two peacekeepers walked Ryan and me inside. I was awestruck. It was beautiful. We were led to the District 13 dining room first. The floors and walls were carpeted with rich red and gold materials. The floor had a thick carpet and the walls were fuzzy and shiny. I was surprised to realize that the exterior of the train completely hid everything inside, from the heavy velvet curtains, to the dining table that was covered in a wide selection of food.

I walked over to the table, grabbed an apple, and explored the room a bit more. Ryan, on the other hand, took an orange and something else that I didn't know the name of, and threw himself down into a comfortable looking armchair.

"Now, now, children. Let's not get too comfortable. You still need to get acquainted with your rooms."

I tossed my apple core into a nearby waste basket, while Ryan left his half-eaten orange and uneaten mystery food on his chair's side table.

Our rooms weren't as big as I imagined they'd be, but they were still more glamorous than our rooms at home. They were almost identical to each other, containing a twin sized bed that was draped in the same materials that were used in the dining room. There was also a red loveseat, with gold pillows lying on top, a small table with an elegant vase of flowers, and a narrow wardrobe. When I saw that, I realized I hadn't brought any clothes with me. I voiced my concern to Pierce, but he told me not to worry about it.

When Ryan and I were done exploring our rooms, we met back up for lunch in the dining room. Since first being in the room, some hot dishes had been added to the table. Most of the food was new to me, and I was normally a picky eater, but for the sake of trying new things, I picked out four items that I didn't know the names of. My first bite put a bad taste in my mouth and I struggled not to spit it into my napkin. When I eventually swallowed, I asked Pierce what it was. He tried to tell me what it was called, but that didn't help; instead, he told me some ingredients that were in it. That's when I found out there was eggplant involved. I hated eggplant. After that bad experience, I was reluctant to try any others, but I didn't want to be rude. Hoping I wouldn't taste much if I ate quickly, I shoved the next two selections into my mouth and chewed as quickly as possible. It worked.

I still had one mystery dish left; I ate it slowly. I couldn't taste the eggplant anymore, so I figured I'd give this last one a chance. In reality, there were three slivers of mystery food left on my plate. They were all bright and shiny, which is what attracted me to them to begin with. They tasted incredible.

"What's this?" Pierce wasn't listening to me. He was reading some book instead.

"Pierce! What is this?" I shouted at him. Startled, he looked up at me and what I held out for him to see.

"Candied flower petals." I didn't know who could have first thought of eating flowers, but I silently thanked them because they were a genius.

Ryan appeared to like everything placed in front of him. I watched as he practically inhaled the many servings of food that he kept replenishing on his plate.

When we finished our meal, a woman walked into the room, with a strip of something dangling from around her neck, a pencil, and a small notebook. Ryan and I were both directed to stand. Apparently this woman- Rita, as we were told by Pierce- was there to take our clothing measurements. I guessed that would solve our lack of luggage issue.

I was so busy watching her fiddle with the strip, that she kept twisting across and around me, that I almost didn't' feel the slight lurch of the train as it began moving to the next District. My excitement grew. This was it! I was going to see the Capitol!

The rest of my day was spent lounging around in the dining room and my bedroom. It was pretty nice to not have to wash dishes, or lug heavy items everywhere, or clean up after everyone, or fetch my bath water from a well. Speaking of bath water, I was able to take a bath on the train! When I saw the tub that I would be bathing in, I was in awe. My tub at home was basically an oversized barrel. This though, was beautiful. I brushed my hands along the sides and felt that it was made of some type of fired clay. It was pearl white and a little bit shiny. It had already been filled with crystal clear water. I couldn't be sure who did it but, on one side of the tub, I saw something that looked like the pump that I used at home to fill the kitchen sink at home.

After I undressed, I lowered myself into the water. It was the perfect temperature and it felt amazing. It wasn't until I was almost completely submerged that I realized the water was giving off a flowery scent.

I don't know how long I had lain in the water before I fell asleep, but when I woke up, the water was cold. I pulled myself out of the tub and grabbed a plush white towel from a nearby towel rack. It felt as if it just had been warmed somehow. I grabbed one of the bars that held the towel up before I took it, to see if they were warm, but they weren't.

I peeked out of the door to the room I was in and peered up and down the short hallway. The view from the windows showed me how dark it had gotten outside; I deduced that most, if not everyone, was already in bed. I figured I should probably do the same. I had forgotten to bring the set of pajamas that Pierce told me were already in my wardrobe. Apparently they had been there since I boarded the train, since our new clothes wouldn't be ready until morning, but I hadn't thought to look inside the wardrobe. Without them, I had to walk back to my room, wearing only my towel, leaving my wet hair to drip behind me and make me cold.

I was relieved when I finally pulled on the long, pale orange, flannel pants and the matching button up shirt. My bed was soft and warm. Sure, I missed my cot at home, but this experience was a pleasant vacation.

Life was good.


	3. Chapter 3

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 3

I was disappointed to learn that Ryan and I wouldn't be allowed to socialize with the other contestants, or 'tributes,' as Pierce kept calling them. I had originally hoped that I might be able to talk to someone besides him and my brother; this train ride was getting pretty boring.

By the evening of day three, we had reached District 9. We went to both 12 and 11 the day after leaving 13 and had visited 10 that morning. I had explored everything in the District 13 section of the train on my second day riding it. There wasn't much to it.

As the train began to slow to a stop, when arriving at District 9, I realized I was sitting alone in the dining car. Making sure nobody was around, I decided to search the path that Ryan and I had taken to board the train. I scoured our section and deduced that no one was near the exit of the train, so I snuck off. I didn't plan on staying long; I just wanted to feel the sun on my face.

It was cloudy outside, and District 9's train station was a little more elaborate than my own. It had a platform, which I assumed must have been left from a time before the war. The entire area, though, looked poorly kept. Grasses and weeds grew from between the cracks in the tiles and small animal droppings were scattered in various places. I was surprised that the Capitol would allow for the station to become so unseemly, considering how often Capitol citizens visited the Districts. I would've thought the first thing the travelers would want to see after stepping off the train would have to be attractive. I kicked at a loose tile in the floor; it popped out of place and slid a few feet away.

I made my way across the platform, enjoying the light breeze. Maybe a half hour passed, when I stopped where there was a clearing in the trees near the platform. I was looking at the view of District 9's buildings when I heard some footsteps behind me; I turned to find two children.

Maybe 'children' wasn't the right word; they weren't much younger than me really. They both looked about fourteen or fifteen, a boy and a girl. The boy was a head taller than me, with a young face. He was well built, with a tan line that I could see on both upper-arms, whenever his short sleeves shifted. His brown hair was cut short to his scalp, so it was hard to tell if it was a dark or light shade.

The girl had light brown hair and was as tall as I was. She had a little more meat on her bones; her clothes were made to fit perfectly, like mine, but I could see her thick calves peek out from under her knee-length dress. She had pinched features, but her green eyes were set deeply.

"Hi," I greeted with a smile.

"Hello," the young girl spoke first. I stepped over to them and held out my hand. When they didn't make any motion to shake it, I retracted it and continued.

"I'm Stacey, from Thirteen. Which District are you from?"

"Ten," the boy answered. "I'm Henry. This is Chickie." The two of them just stood there, awkwardly.

"Well, it's nice to meet you," I spoke, trying to ease the tension. We stood in silence for another few moments.

"What is it you do in Thirteen?" Henry asked after a while. I wasn't sure if he meant me, personally, or what my District specialized in.

"Well, my father's a carpenter, but most people in my District are graphite miners. I guess I don't really do anything; I help my dad sometimes. How about you two?"

"We both work on the same farm. We help raise chickens. When they're old enough, we send them to another farm to be killed." Chickie answered. She definitely had a way with words; it was more information than I needed to hear.

"Oh, that's….cool."

"So what were you told about us being here?" Henry asked.

"In District Nine? To pick up the other contestants."

"No. Why do you think you were selected?" I hesitated, unsure of what these two were getting at.

"…The Capitol is holding a contest… why do you think we're here?" They exchanged glances for a moment, before Chickie spoke.

"We're not totally sure. Our chaperone told us this contest, or whatever, is going to be really exciting, but we think it's a lie."

"Why?"

"Didn't Thirteen hear the rumors?" Chickie shook her head a little, then continued. "This isn't going to be a normal contest. Don't you think it's weird that, all of a sudden, not long after a huge war, the Capitol wants to give us a 'wonderful opportunity'? This contest's a joke. They're probably just gonna parade us in the street in tar and feathers."

"They…wouldn't do that." I was trying to convince myself that they were wrong, but their suspicions were too similar to my father's.

"Why not? I sure wouldn't put it past them."

"Well, then what's the prize?"

"…Maybe a sandwich?" Henry answered after a moment of silence. We laughed a little, despite the tension that had just built.

"OK, getting tarred and feathered would be pretty awful, but at least we'll get to see the Capitol." I reasoned. They didn't look too convinced, so I walked away, making my way a little farther down the platform. I looked back, after a minute or two, and saw Chickie boarding the train again. Henry was still on the platform, but had wandered in the other direction.

I looked back at the scenery and noticed some movement in the distance; something was traveling towards us, from the District buildings. The other tributes were coming! I didn't know what would happen to me if I was caught outside, when I was clearly told not to be there, but I didn't want to find out.

"Quick! Get back on the train! They're coming back!" I called out to Henry. His entrance was nearby, so he had no problem reaching it. Mine was almost ten cars away! I ran.

I had never been the fastest runner, but I still made it back to my car in time. I peeked around the entrance after arriving and saw that the party was only just walking up the steps of the platform. I breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn't sure what I was so afraid of, but it still sent a thrill of excitement through me, knowing how close I was to being caught.

"Where did you disappear to earlier?" Ryan asked later that day, as I sat in the dining area, eating while reading a book I had found. He was curled up in a round armchair, looking out the window. It had started to rain. I stopped chewing.

"What are you talking about?" I tried to feign ignorance. Ryan breathed on the window three times, fogging it.

"I was looking for you earlier and I couldn't find you." He drew a scrawny looking bird in the glass. It disappeared before he could finish though. "Then I saw you running outside." Busted.

"I just…" I could think of no reasonable lie, so I just decided to go with the truth. "I'm going crazy in here. I'm so bored! I had to get out!" He just smiled, still looking at his drawing.

"Well, next time you decide to be a rebel, let me know. I'd like to get a look at the other Districts too, you know." I sighed, relieved. I should've known he wouldn't be mad at me. He was usually the one causing trouble anyway.

The following day, we stopped at Eight and Seven. I wasn't awake in time to see Eight, but could glimpse a wide expanse of pine trees once we arrived at Seven. The forest was so dense, I could smell the trees from inside the train, or maybe I was just imagining it. I wanted to go out and explore, but Rita was sewing not far from the door that led to the exit. When I told Ryan about this, he looked just as disappointed as I felt.

The same thing happened the following day: I was only awake for District Five. To be fair, I was woken up by Ryan, shaking me, just as we were pulling away from Six. I tried looking out the window, but could only see the fencing, that marked the edge of the District, in the distance.

Five was visible from several miles away. When in school, we had to learn about the different Districts and their roles in Panem. I had seen pictures of the great windmills of District Five, but I hadn't realized how large they actually were. I knew there were also oil rigs set up in different parts of the District, but the windmills were always the only thing anyone talked about, when talking about Five. Once we got closer to the district, past the gates, I caught sight of one of the oil rigs. Back in the older days, some rigs would have fire coming out of them, to burn off the natural gas that was sometimes released. There was no natural gas now; Panem had excavated all there was decades ago.

Once again, the exit of the train was within sight of someone; this time it was Pierce. He was reading a magazine that I had seen lying on one of the small tables, next to an armchair. He wasn't necessarily watching the door, but I knew he would stop me if I tried to open it. I didn't bother. Instead, Ryan and I were forced to settle for looking at the windmills from the dining car window. I was never good at technology, so I didn't understand how they worked. Ryan tried, in vain, to explain to me how the rotating blades harnessed the energy that powered the country.

It was the bizarre smell that woke me up the following day. It was early morning, judging by the position of the sun in the sky: still quite near the horizon. That meant I had finally woken up early enough to see the morning District. The scenery of Four was possibly the most interesting to me. When I looked out one side of the train, I saw buildings, houses and all the other makings of a normal society. If I looked out the window on the other side of the car though, I was met with a vast expanse of ocean. I was completely in awe of the glittering waves as the early morning's rays reflected off of them. The odor I had smelled earlier was completely forgotten. I later learned though, that the smell was attributed to low tide.

District Three was, sadly, nothing to get excited about. It had started to rain by the time we arrived, making the bland buildings appear even bleaker. Most of the people living there worked in factories, meaning they were all inside. Fortunately, I was able to spot the two new contestants to board the train. They walked by the window of my room, as I was undressing for a bath. When I saw them, I nearly jumped, forgetting that the train windows were tinted. I hadn't wrapped a towel around myself yet, so I was thankful to whoever thought to tamper with visibility from outside the train. I was able to gather that the new members were both blonde. I couldn't see much else, since they were almost gone by the time I reached my window to get a better view.

When I sat down for dinner that night, Pierce looked the most excited I had seen him.

"What's got your spirits so high?" I asked him, as I added some noodles to my plate.

"Just one more day until we get to the Capitol!" He didn't shout anything, but I could hear his excitement in his voice. That, and he had a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

I went to bed that night, realizing my custom made night clothes had grown a bit snug. I really had to cut back on the food.

I woke up on the seventh day when the train was stopped. I couldn't tell if it was morning or afternoon just by the sunlight pouring in the room, but when I spotted a group of Peacekeepers doing exercises, not far from the station, I figured we must be at District Two: most of Panem's Peacekeepers were trained there. Other than the training group, nothing else looked interesting. The station itself looked like it was in slightly better shape than the other Districts, but that might have been because it was used more often and was within sight of a majority of the citizens, by the looks of it.

District One wasn't much different. Sure, it was in better shape than even Two, but that was probably because they produced luxury items that cost a lot of money. This District could afford to be pretty.

On the eighth day of our trip, I woke to find that the train had already stopped. I looked out my window and saw the most elaborate train station I could imagine. It looked bigger than my entire District, and every surface sparkled. I couldn't even be sure what kinds of materials were used to construct it.

There was a knock at my door.

"Uh, come in?" My door slid open and in walked Pierce, with another person, dressed and made up strangely. Despite the person's clean cut appearance, it was obvious they were a servant. Its make-up was done in such a way that I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl.

I had heard of these people: Avoxes. They were said to be prisoners turned servants of the Capitol. I had been told people that tried to act out against the Capitol, or somehow escape, were found, captured and tortured. Then they would have their tongues cut out so they could never speak of their evils again. I had always thought it was just a story parents told their children to keep them in line. How wrong I was.

The Avox followed Pierce as he walked towards me, then branched away, fetching some clothes out of my wardrobe. I watched it as Pierce began speaking to me.

"We've arrived at the Capitol, Stacey." Pierce told me as he reached my bedside. I was told to get dressed and meet Pierce and Ryan in the dining area. I put on the loose fitting black shirt and beige pants that were had been lain out for me. After checking myself in the small mirror on the wall, I made my way to the dining car. Ryan and Pierce were already there, which I thought was incredible. Usually I had to spend at least fifteen minutes coercing Ryan out of bed.

As usual, my little brother was stuffing his face with anything that would fit in it. Pierce sat at the other end of the table, sipping out of some delicate looking cup and reading a newsletter. I realized he must have missed the small comforts of home. We don't distribute Capitol newsletters in the Districts, at least not in my District. He hasn't been able to read one in over a week. From where I sat, I could see the cover of the newsletter. Part of it featured these Hunger Games I would be taking part in.

"Oh, Pierce. What does it say about the Hunger Games?" I asked him, eager to know more about this contest I had been entered in. He looked up at me and then slowly back down at the paper. He scrunched up his forehead as he read.

"It says… that it will be very exciting. That two tributes from every District will be participating." He stopped at that, looked up at me and back down at his paper, as if to say that that was all there was. I waited a moment, to see if my assumption was wrong. It wasn't. He continued reading his newsletter in silence.

"Oh, come on, that can't be it. What else does it say?" He looked up at me again, without moving his paper an inch.

"No, that's all there is." I wasn't buying it.

"Let me see it then."

"I'm still using it."

"Then, when you're finished."

"Actually, I need to go see to our arrangements. I wonder if the car is here yet." And just like that, he walked out, with the newsletter.

Ryan and I were led off the train after breakfast. I had already seen some of the station through a window on the train, but the glass had been tinted and kept the glare away. Once we stepped out, I nearly had to shield my eyes. If I didn't know better, I would have thought the station was outdoors. Artificial light reflected off of every surface, blinding me momentarily. The rest of my group continued walking, somehow unaffected by the sudden brilliance. After my eyes adjusted, though, I was able to see that metallic benches and pillars were scattered around the station.

I almost didn't see the car waiting on a pathway. We filed in and it took us out of the large structure and into a densely populated intersection, just outside the building. I could imagine that the normal trains that might have been running might have been canceled or delayed for our arrival. Otherwise, I assumed there would have been other people in the station when our train pulled in.

I turned my attention back to the people that milled around outside, going about their daily business. They looked funny. As I had seen on TV, most, if not all of them had their hair colored or styled in a way that couldn't have been natural. At one point, I spotted a small group of normal looking people that held backpacks and wore nametags, following a greasy-looking man that had a flag on a long stick, attached to his belt. I asked Pierce what they were doing.

"Tour group." He responded in disgust, before turning back to the window on his side of the car. I couldn't imagine what could be so unpleasant about people wanting to admire the place you come from. I was admiring the Capitol. Was I disgusting to Pierce?


	4. Chapter 4

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 4

The following morning, I woke up to Pierce knocking on my bedroom door. Groggily, I shifted in my bed, turning to face the ceiling. Judging from the little light streaming through the window, I could tell it wasn't long past sunrise. Thinking back, I tried to remember why he would be waking me up so early. I figured I was scheduled to do something that I just couldn't remember.

"You were due up fifteen minutes ago, Stacey. You have a busy day today." Pierce let himself in.

"Mmnnpfff!" I replied, throwing my face into my pillow. Then I remembered what had transpired the previous day.

Our car had pulled up at the end of a long row of houses, thirteen to be exact. They were bigger than most of the ones in my District, standing two stories tall. They were smaller than any of the buildings I had seen so far in the Capitol though, plainer too. These houses didn't sparkle.

"This is where you will be residing during your stay in the Capitol." Pierce had told us as Ryan and I stepped out of the car. I turned to Ryan, to gauge his reaction to this. I couldn't tell what he thought. It unnerved me; usually I could easily tell what he was thinking.

I noticed several other cars had already pulled up in front of the other houses and more children were standing on the long sidewalk. I saw Henry a few houses down; the one with the number '10' at the top of the doorframe. Our door had its own '13.' The scenery around the houses was lovely. If I turned and looked past the row of cars, I could spy a playground. A group of Capitol children had stopped playing and, instead, were staring at all of us. Their parents tried, in vain, to hide their own stares.

Suddenly feeling awkward and embarrassed, I walked up to the door to let myself inside. I was greeted by a warmly decorated room of cream colored walls and beige furniture. Avoxes stood in almost every corner. A spiral staircase led to the second floor. As I entered an archway, into the kitchen, I saw Ryan and Pierce walk into the house.

The kitchen was at least twice the size of my own at home, maybe three times. The appliances were all shiny and new-looking. I was excited to test them out. What would I cook?

Ryan's, Pierce's and my rooms were all upstairs. Pierce would be staying with us for the duration of our Capitol visit. I supposed it would be helpful; we had no idea how to navigate the Capitol if we wanted to take a walk or something. I especially wanted to know if there was a market nearby, so I could buy supplies for my first Capitol cooking experience.

My room was incredibly spacious, with a pale purple carpet and light yellow curtains that stretched to the floor. My bed was huge. I was sure I could stretch my limbs out completely and still be unable to touch all the sides. As I sat on the bed, I noticed a short, black, plastic box sitting on the small table to the side of my bed. It had little rubber buttons sticking out of it. I tried pressing one of them.

Nothing.

I tried another one.

Nothing.

One more.

Nothing again.

I assumed whatever it was must be broken. I placed it back on the table and made a mental note to let Pierce know about it, in case it was important.

I walked over to the extremely large bay window. It had a window seat, with a cute purple cushion. I sat and gazed outside. The other contestants had all gone into their respective houses and the cars had all gone, leaving the street empty. The children that had stopped playing across the street had resumed their activity, though I noticed they had all strayed over to the playground equipment that was farthest from our houses. A few of them had even settled for simply sitting next to their parents. The adults had all gone back to gossiping with each other. I had a feeling though that the content of their conversations had changed. They kept glancing in the direction of the houses.

"Hey, Stace! Check me out!" I walked out of my room to see Ryan slide down the spiraling banister of the staircase. I had to admit, it looked like fun, until Ryan fell off not far from the bottom. He'd been through worse, so I didn't even think of going to help him. I laughed as he pulled himself off the carpeted floor.

"Children! Can I please have a word with you in the sitting room?" I heard Pierce call from downstairs. I trotted down the steps to join him and Ryan. We took seats on the overstuffed beige sofas and tried to get comfortable. I didn't think it was possible, so I just sucked it up and sat still. Throughout our chat, I saw Ryan continuously fidget.

"We need to discuss what will be expected of you until the Games." I perked up, excited to learn more about these Hunger Games.

"Firstly, you will be meeting with President Hail in the morning. He wants to congratulate your participation in the Games. Cameras will be there to record everything. It'll be broadcasted to the Districts." Pierce picked up a small glass that I hadn't realized was sitting on a small table to his right, then leaned back. "From there, you will be introduced to the other tributes and your trainers."

"Trainers? For what?" I asked, surprised.

"All will be explained tomorrow." I wasn't satisfied with his answer, but I accepted it anyway. It only made me uneasy for the rest of the day.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" I turned back to Pierce before I left the room. He glanced up at me from his drink, acknowledging me. "There's a stick in my room, with buttons. I think it's broken."

"The remote?" I didn't know what it was called, so I just nodded. "I'll take a look at it in a minute."

That was all he wanted to tell us, so we went our separate ways and got accustomed to our temporary home. Pierce stopped by my room a little while later to find out what had broken.

"Ok, where is it?" He stood, rather impatiently, in my doorway. Unnerved by his demeanor, I quickly gathered the remote from my table and brought it to him. He pressed a button and a tiny green light appeared on the top portion of the device. He pressed another button and the TV that was mounted on the wall turned on.

"How'd you do that?"

"You had to turn it on sweetheart." The use of the pet name was countered by the sarcastic tone of his voice. This was when I started to realize that I really didn't know very much about this man. Sure, I had spent over a week living in the same train as him, but I hadn't actually taken the time to get to know him. My liking for him was decreasing rapidly. I decided to avoid him even more than I had on the train.

Pierce left me alone for the rest of the day, as I fiddled with the remote, of which we didn't have in my District. Aside from dinner, nothing else happened worth noting.

I returned to the present and, slowly, hauled myself out of bed. An Avox had set out my clothes for my meeting with the President. I was surprised about how un-excited I was, but figured my nerves would start acting up when the time came closer to meeting him.

Ryan looked uncomfortable in his dress clothes, as we sat in the car that would take us to the President's house. He wasn't used to wearing them more than once or twice a year, and usually there would be a pretty girl he would be trying to impress. This year, though, he'd been forced to wear them twice in the same month. He kept fidgeting.

The ride to the President's house wasn't long, but the difference in scenery, compared to the house I was staying at, was great. Where I had gotten somewhat accustomed to seeing a playground from my bedroom window and greenery alongside the quiet road, the President's house was not only large, but also surrounded by even larger buildings, which I would later be told all manage the upkeep of the Capitol. There wasn't even a patch of grass from what I could tell.

The cars carrying the other District contestants were already parked on the side of the road, before we joined them. One by one, I watched as each car door opened, the different pairs of children exiting in the order of the District numbers. Our car was last.

When Ryan and I stepped into the large gray building that was the President's home, we were ushered into a large room that had many dark blue chairs arranged in rows. We were then positioned into a line, along with the other contestants. The woman that directed us to the position had something metal in her ear; I could hear muffled sounds coming from it every now and then. She sometimes spoke to herself, as if responding to someone. I assumed the metal piece must have been transmitting someone else's voice.

As I stood in my position, next to Ryan, I saw a pair of double doors open at the other end of the expansive room. People began to file inside, constantly glancing at the group of us, congregated in front of them. Some of them whispered to each other and I noticed some of them even snickering, shielding their faces from view to speak to keep us from over hearing them. I desperately wanted to know what so many of these people found so funny.

Once the room was full, the doors were closed and a hush took over the crowd. It was so quiet that I could hear a single pair of feet clicking their way in my direction. I heard them stop several feet away from me, so I tried to peek around Ryan, since looking over him would be impossible, given his height. There was a podium in the center of the platformed piece of floor we stood on. I finally got a good look at him, just as applause broke out in the room.

Standing at the podium was a scrawny-looking man. I was sure I could have fit my arms around him almost twice. His clean-shaven face only made his deep wrinkles more pronounced. He looked pretty tall, even from where I was standing. His graying hair was cut short to his scalp; I could see a few age spots from between the hairs. I couldn't imagine how old he must have been.

"Good morning, citizens of Panem." He began. Though his appearance was haggard, his voice gave away nothing about his age. It was strong and clear and, even if there were no microphone, he could be heard from the other side of the room. The entire room was in rapture to his presence, giving him their undivided attention.

"Today, is a day of great importance for our great country. Today is the day we welcome these fine young men and women as representatives of our thirteen Districts." He paused, letting his speech settle into the observers. More than one child on the stage puffed out their chest when he mentioned that we represented our Districts.

"These representatives will soon undertake a pageant of glory and honor. They will be tested physically, mentally and emotionally, in this battle of life and death."

I noticed some children in our group begin to look around, confused. I did too. A few, however, just stood there, either with their eyes closed and heads hanging low, or grim-faced and staring at the ceiling. He couldn't possibly be serious could he? No. It must be a metaphor. I continued to listen.

But as the President kept speaking, I couldn't make any sense of his words aside from what I feared.

"Only one tribute will survive." He finished, waited for the applausefrom the crowd to subside, and walked off the stage.

All I could do was stand and stare at the crowd. It was like slow motion. Their cheers sounded like a dull roar. I faintly heard crying coming from several of the children. I looked around; hoping to find just one person that could tell me this was some kind of sick joke.

I tried looking for Pierce's face among the crowd; surely he would have answers to these horrific questions in my head. I could only see the smiling faces that all held malicious intent. They cheered, knowing most of us would die. When I couldn't find Pierce, I looked to my left, at Ryan. He was in shock, with a dumbstruck look on his face.

Several seconds passed before a man led us all off the stage. Some of the children needed assistance; their shock made them almost immobile.

"Pierce!" I shouted louder then I intended.

Ryan and I had just been taken back to our car and we found Pierce already waiting inside.

"Pierce, tell me it was a joke." His red face continued to look forward, away from me. He didn't respond. Instead, he instructed the diver to move the car.

We pulled away from the curb smoothly, as I continued to stare at the fat man that brought us here.

"Answer me!"

Nothing.

"Stace, let it go." Ryan was staring out the window, as we passed by the colorful buildings of the Capitol. I couldn't tell what he was thinking; his face showed no emotion.

I sat back in my seat, letting go of Pierce's arm, unaware that I had grabbed it in the first place. I felt tears well up in my eyes and my vision became a bit foggy as a result.

The President brought us all here to die.


	5. Chapter 5

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 5

We were told that we would have two days of training to learn how to fight. I was dreading it. Ryan had walked straight to his room when we returned to our temporary, and possibly last, home after meeting our trainers.

I lay down on the soft purple quilt on my bed, and wondered what my father was doing. There were cameras at the announcement. Had he watched it? Was he sad? Angry? What about Kitty? I was her best friend, and now I was going to die. I continued to lie there for a few more minutes, thinking and staring at the ceiling. Then I decided: I had to win.

Wait. What about Ryan? The president said there would only be one winner. Surely they didn't expect siblings to kill each other right? They probably wouldn't care; they expected kids to kill each other in the first place. I had to find a way to keep us both alive. Maybe that was why he was being so quiet. Maybe he was trying to figure out a way for us to survive.

We weren't told the exact type of situation that we would be placed in, so I tried to imagine what we might be required to do. No doubt they would find some way to get us to kill each other. Maybe they were just going to throw us into an arena, like in the old Roman times, and fight it out, gladiator–style. Or, maybe it'd be like the old west & we'd have to start out back to back from each other, walk ten paces and whoever drew first lived.

I couldn't sleep that night. I was too busy thinking about all of the possible ways the Capitol would try to kill us. I would also have to try to find a way to protect Ryan. Before I knew it, dawn was approaching; I saw the faint light peeking through my window. I got out of bed, stretched, and got dressed in the clothes I thought would allow me to be the most flexible, preparing for my day of training. If I was going to die, I was going to die fighting.

Ryan went through our usual routine silently: dress, eat & leave. When we got to the training building, I noticed a group of Capitol officials were sitting in a sectioned off area. I wasn't sure why they would want to be there and witness a bunch of children attempt to learn weaponry, then again, I thought it was ridiculous that they would want to see children fight to the death at all.

I stood in the center of the large room, with the other tributes, as the head trainer lectured to us on safety rules. "Safety." As if any of us were safe anymore. I barely listened, instead glancing around at the different types of weapons we could learn to use. I didn't know how to handle any of them.

I already spotted a few of the other, older tributes land their eyes on a few different types of blades. The weapons' edges looked menacing. The curved metal looked like it was specially designed to slit throats. Then there were more blunt weapons, like the hammers. They looked too heavy to carry, but it was probably misleading. No doubt they could still break skulls.

When the trainer finished explaining what we would be doing, he let us split into the different training areas that we thought we would need. I went to the wilderness survival skills station. I didn't know how to make a fire, and by the sounds of it, I'd probably need one, assuming I lived long enough to build it. It took me a few tries, but once the station trainer explained what I was doing wrong, I managed to create a small spark. It went out pretty quickly, but after a few more attempts, I had a small fire growing from the tiny heap of dry leaves and grass.

In between my stations, I searched the room for Ryan. I spotted him practicing hand-to-hand combat. I figured it would probably come in handy later on. I watched as he struggled with a trainer, grappling all over the mat they stood on. Another trainer stood to the side, observing. After a short while, it looked like Ryan was losing; the second trainer stopped them to rest. I saw Ryan walk to a nearby bench and grab a bottle of water. I made my way over to him to see how he was handling our situation.

"Hey kid." I said, trying to keep the mood light. He looked up at me, from his seat. I saw his brown hair was matted to his forehead with sweat, making it look darker than it really was. I could see a small bruise starting to form along his jaw; he must've gotten it while practicing.

"Hey." He sounded tired, but he looked ready for anything. I sat with him and looked around the vast room some more.

"What've you learned so far?" He asked me, as I watched a girl that looked close to my age race a smaller boy up a ladder, to retrieve a flag attached to a rope above it. She was going to be the clear winner. I told Ryan about my progress in making a fire. He gave a short grunt sound in response.

"I don't think Sofie'll get you mixed up with any other Ryan after all this is over." He didn't smile like I hoped he would.

"I'll never see her again." And just like that, it was as if everything went fuzzy. Sound seemed to get muffled and as soon as it started, it ended, with the scream of a little blonde girl across the room.

Ryan and I both darted our heads to the direction of the piercing sound. All we could see from where we were sitting was the little girl and all the trainers in the room rushing over towards her. She was crying, hyperventilating, and clinging to a trainer that was trying to walk her away from whatever it was that scared her so badly. The both of us got up and made our way over to the scene, where the other tributes were beginning to congregate as well.

I couldn't see anything through the small crowd, especially since I was so short. Even the younger boys towered over me, having hit their growth spurts at young ages. A trainer came by and told us "the show" was over and that we should continue our business and there was nothing to see.

As everyone began walking away to his or her prospective stations, I caught a glimpse of what the chaos was about. Between the scattering bodies, I saw a motionless one. It was lying on the floor; face up, with a knife in its chest. It was a boy, maybe a year or two younger than me. I couldn't see much more than that, since the trainers surrounded him and cleared the area.

The day continued with hushed whispers traveling from tribute to tribute about what the story behind the boy's death could be. The most probable situation was suicide. Supposedly, the girl that screamed had seen it happen, watching as he took the knife to his chest. I could only imagine what must have been going through his head, knowing he was probably going to die in a few days anyway. He probably wanted a better death. Or maybe he figured he wouldn't be able to kill anyone else.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted. Ryan too. Strangely enough, I slept soundly that night.

The next day, Ryan and I arrived at our training session, greeted by the sight of twice the amount of trainers than the previous day. Half of them weren't even milling around, just standing towards the sidelines, almost against the walls. For the most part, the regular trainers from the previous day were the ones that were instructing us. I later realized that they probably raised security in the training room in order to avoid another suicide. I wasn't sure how they would prevent us from killing ourselves when they were providing weapons for us to use, but I didn't want to ask any questions. Maybe more kids were planning on ending their lives before the rest of us had to do it for them. Who was I to stop them? It wasn't like they had a happier future waiting for them.

As the day wore on and I made my way to the different training stations, I had the growing realization that, soon I would be expected to fight to the death. There were already only twenty-five of us left, meaning twenty-four would be after me. At our lunch break, the lead trainer informed us that, the following day we would be individually evaluated by the game makers. I wasn't really sure what this would mean for us. What would we be evaluated on?

I hadn't really gotten the hang of any specific weapons. I mostly wanted to gain as much experience with as many of the weapons as possible. I guess if I had to pick though, I would prefer to use one of the shorter blades. Swords were too heavy and I had terrible aim with a bow, but I kept practicing anyway. I just didn't know how I'd be able to get close enough to someone to use the knives. Occasionally, I would search the room for Ryan. I caught him at a few different stations; all of them involved some type of battle skill. I hoped he was learning survival skills when I wasn't looking.

As I was aiming my bow to fire an arrow at a target that was set up for me, I heard a commotion at the station two sections away from me. I loosed the arrow, missing by more than an arm-span. I turned to my left to see what the fuss was about. A young boy was being practically dragged out of the room by two burly trainers. I had spotted them hovering on the sidelines when we arrived earlier.

The boy was shouting something I couldn't make out over his accent. He sounded like he must have been from One or Two. As he shouted, he threw his head from side to side, attempting to free himself from their grip. I noticed a thin line of blood trickling down the side of his neck. I guessed he had tried to off himself and, obviously, failed. By the looks of the blood, I think he placed the point of the blade too far to the back of his neck to hit the artery. I wondered what they would do with him. Kill him? Or heal him, so they could force him to live long enough for us to do it.

I searched the room for Ryan again, spotting him at the knot-tying station, looking right at me. I hoped he hadn't considered finding a way to "drop out" too. All I could do for the rest of the day was try to forget about the boy they dragged away and hope that I wouldn't have to see him at the battle. I still didn't really know what was planned for us. But, what else could it be.

I was starving and dinner couldn't come soon enough. When it did, Ryan, Pierce and I sat at the small dining table, with two avoxes standing in the corner. It was an incredibly uncomfortable experience. We had three courses: soup, our main course, and dessert. Overall, it was filling, but my nerves kept my taste buds from appreciating the food that, I'm sure, was exquisite. Ryan sat across the table, leaning his head in his palm, with his elbow supported by the table-top. He seemed bored as he slurped his soup. The only give away for his nerves were his wide eyes; they were alert to everything around us. His eyes wandered all over the room, as if he were looking for something.

I looked back down at my food. I had only one more day until Ryan and I would be thrust into a fight for our lives. I felt stupid for thinking that the Capitol could have ever had our best interests at heart. Stupid for believing this was some sort of contest with a fabulous prize for the winner. I guess, in a sick, twisted way, it was. The contest was our battle and our prize was our life. Too bad there weren't consolation prizes. I wish we could at least get a "participation" ribbon or something, anything that would show that my life meant more than nothing to the Capitol.

I excused myself from the table halfway through dessert (chocolate mousse cake with a side of cherries). After I made my way back to my room, I just kind of stood in the doorway, not sure what I wanted to do there. Maybe a bath would ease some tension, so I walked to the bathroom that was located to the right of the door I was already standing in. I started the water, since no buckets were necessary to fill the tub here. When I was satisfied with the temperature, I started undressing, making sure there was a towel nearby for when I was ready to leave. Of course there was, if the avoxes hadn't made sure there was one there, they would have probably be punished for not doing their job. I wouldn't have reported them anyway, but at least I wouldn't have to complete the awkward task of hunting one down to ask them for a towel personally. I wouldn't dare ask Pierce, I was sure he would have reported them.

As I sat in the warm water, I tried to clear my head. I was unsuccessful though, only being able to think of the next few days. What would they be evaluating us on the next day? Was it like a test? If I scored a high mark, would I get some sort of advantage in the games? If I failed, would they give me some sort of disadvantage? Did any of it even matter? How long would I last before somebody got me in a corner and ended my life? Maybe those other kids at training had the right idea. I'm sure nobody wanted to hurt anybody else, but if it came to their lives or somebody else's, no doubt they'd save their own skin. The people in charge would probably make sure it was all incredibly brutal too. Our families probably wouldn't even be able to recognize our bodies afterward, if they even got the courtesy of having our bodies returned home.

The water was foggy with heat and I leaned back against the ceramic tub, trying to get comfortable. I looked down and saw my red hair floating around my shoulders. I felt the corner of my mouth tug into an ironic smirk. It looked like blood was tainting the waters. Why did my hair have to be red? I hoped that, when it came for my time to die, there wouldn't be too much blood. Maybe I'd be strangled, or someone would break my neck. I gazed at the water a moment longer.

Or maybe I'd drown.

It was the perfect escape. Pierce wouldn't be able to stop me. I didn't really think he cared much about what happened to us anyway. I was bound to die sooner or later. I might as well give the other kids a chance and take away one more obstacle in their way. With me out of the picture, Ryan and I wouldn't have to fight each other when it came down to it. I would sacrifice myself in the end for him anyway. At least, this way, he might not feel so guilty. I hoped he wouldn't miss me too much.

With my mind made up, I gripped the sides of the tub, bracing myself for my imminent suffocation. I exhaled as much as I could, hoping it would make my death faster, since I wouldn't have any air in my lungs to sustain me.

One.

Two.

Three.

My entire body was submerged, from head to toe. I opened my eyes, long enough to look past the surface of the water, only able to see the tiles of the ceiling. This wasn't so bad. Maybe I'd die without even realizing what was happening. But I thought too soon. All at once, the pain struck me, like someone had dropped hot coals on my chest and held them there. As a reflex, my mouth shot open, gasping for air, but the only thing I inhaled was water. The sensation only made my lungs fight harder to inhale.

This was it. I was drowning. Even as I fought to breathe, I pressed my hands against the sides of the tub, making sure my head didn't accidentally break the water's surface. This needed to happen. When I no longer had the strength to press against the ceramic, I flipped my body over so that, if I did float to the surface, only my back would hit air.

My body tried to cough, but still no air entered my lungs. I began to see black splotches, before my vision turned fuzzy altogether. I closed my eyes against the pain wracking my chest. I could feel my heart go from a frantic pounding to a progressively slower thud. The water felt cold now, but I was barely able to process the sensation as I lost consciousness.

My body convulsed as I gagged and coughed up water all over the bathroom floor. The tiles were freezing and my hair was plastered across my face. Oh God, my lungs were on fire. What happened to me? I quickly remembered what I had done as I felt something soft draping itself across my back. I had switched positions, from lying on my side to crouching on all fours to expel the foreign substance from my airway. My limbs protested to supporting my weight, feeling weak. I could hear something muffled; it sounded far away. I was light-headed and found that I couldn't think straight.

When most of the water had made its way out of my system, I collapsed back to the floor, grasped the towel I found wrapped around me, and gazed around. The very first thing I noticed was Ryan standing over me, sopping wet. It looked like he was trying to say something, but his voice was distant to my recovering ears. He stopped talking after a moment though and gathered me up in a tight embrace.

What had I been thinking? Of course Ryan would miss me. He was my brother. How could I just try to leave him that way? If I really wanted to give him some kind of chance in these games, I had to make sure I lived long enough to keep him safe.


	6. Chapter 6

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 6

I lay in my bed, recovering from my act of stupidity. I watched Ryan pace around the room, running his hands through his hair. He didn't say anything for the longest time.

"Ryan, I'm sorry. I don't know what I was doing. I just….panicked." He stopped pacing and sat down on the bed next to me.

"Stacey." He looked so panicked. More panicked than I think I was just before I tried to end my life. "Don't you think I'm scared? Of course I'm scared! We're all scared!" We're all gonna die!" He looked away, and started pacing again. "Well, most of us anyway; one of us has a chance."

"It's gonna be you Ryan."

"Don't be ridiculous. Dad needs you way more than he needs me." I was shocked. How could he possibly believe that my life was more valuable than his? Our father loved us equally! He had so much potential!

A knock came at the door and Pierce allowed himself into my room, without being invited. He stopped short after catching sight of my appearance. I was still red-faced from lack of air and my hair was dripping onto my sheets.

"What's going on here?" His gaze moved from me, to Ryan, and back, looking for an explanation.

"I'm not sure what you mean," I responded, surprising myself with how calm my voice sounded.

"You're a mess!"

"Well, gee, thanks. Girls love to hear that. I'm guessing you're still single then, huh?" The fat man got red in the face and stumbled over some unintelligible words, before he stumbled out the door, shutting it behind him. Any remorse I might have felt for my comment dissipated when I reminded myself that he hadn't been very nice to Ryan or me and he knew about this whole scam to kill a bunch of kids and didn't even warn us. Jerk.

"What do you think tomorrow's gonna be like?" I turned back to Ryan and asked him. He leaned against the wall opposite me and shut his eyes. He just shook his head.

"I have no idea. They're gonna evaluate us? On what? How well we can avoid dying? Maybe they'll be merciful and try to kill us then…maybe we can kill the officials." It was the darkest I'd ever heard him. Before this whole nightmare happened, the worst I had ever heard of him wanting to hurt someone was after a classmate had teased him about our dad being a carpenter, instead of working in the mines like most other adults. Ryan stormed home that afternoon ranting about wanting to punch the classmate's nose in. I advised him not to, so he went on for a week fuming before he finally got over it.

I climbed out of bed and grabbed another towel that was folded on top of a counter in my bathroom. I flipped my head over and wrapped it around my hair. The action made my growing headache worse, but it was too tedious to wring out different pieces of my hair with it. Dropping myself back onto my bed, I curled into a ball and nuzzled the covers.

"What're we gonna do," I didn't really expect Ryan to have an answer and he didn't.

The following morning found Ryan, me, and all of the remaining sacrifices (including the attempted suicide-boy) lined up in the hallway outside our regular training room. An official called each of us, one by one, into the room. Nobody came back out, which led me to believe there was another door inside that I hadn't noticed before, or they were picking us all off. I wouldn't have been surprised if it was the latter.

It eventually came down to Ryan and me. We had both been standing for at least two hours. My legs were getting sore; I could only shift my weight to each leg so many times before it became pointless. Ryan was called in. I looked to my left, where he stood and he gave me a smirk.

"Here goes nothin'," and he disappeared through the doorway. I slid down the wall and sat on the floor for fifteen minutes, before I heard my own name called. Here was the moment of truth. I still had no idea what my strengths were. How was I supposed to show off?

It looked like the room had been emptied; it seemed much bigger. Maybe it was just my imagination, or maybe it was because I was the only person there. Well, me and the group of officials in a sitting area far above my head. I glanced around, searching for whatever it was I was supposed to do. I was the last kid to walk through the door, so I was sure the officials were bored by that point. But at the same time, I remembered that judges tend to remember the first and last contestants. Maybe this would work in my favor.

But as I looked at the table of weapons that sat in the center of the room, I found myself at a loss. I had no idea how to handle most of them. A few I had seen even before coming to this wretched place, but that was because I had used them to help my dad with carpentry. Laid out on the table were a variety of killing devices, but also a hammer and a saw-like blade. How could I kill with them? I picked them both up and trotted over to a beat-up looking practice dummy. When I got close enough, I swung the heavy hammer towards its head. It made a satisfying thud and dent.

I glanced over at the officials to see if my action garnered a reaction. Nothing. They didn't even so much as flinch as I gave the unfortunate mannequin a death blow. I swung the hammer again, making a loud grunt as I did. Still no reaction. I beat it again and again and again. The rubber skull was almost indistinguishable from a pile of mush and still I got no reaction from the stuffy old men that stood over me.

I tried to lift the mannequin and carry it closer the where the overlook was, so the geezers could get a better look at my vicious handiwork. That didn't really work out, so I settled for dragging it. It was way heavier than it looked, but I managed to set it up not far from the ledge of where they sat. Deciding my hammer's job was done, I switched weapons and wrapped myself around the torso of the mannequin. I slowly began sawing away at its neck. My blade was sharper than I anticipated, so I made quick work of it. When I finished, I laid the rubber body on the floor, with its head, and spared a glance at my audience. They all stood with mild looks of horror on their faces. I couldn't help but smile a little. I had finally made an impact.

Spotting the second door out of the room, I made my way over to it and let myself out.


	7. Chapter 7

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 7

Pierce told Ryan and me, when we got back "home", that the following day would be our last day of freedom. Okay, well, he didn't use those exact words, but that was the gist of it. We were free to do almost anything we wanted; we could even go outside, though it wasn't recommended. Who knew what might happen once we were exposed to the elements?

I went outside anyway. After looking out the window, to make sure there wasn't some angry mob with pitchforks and torches, I figured it was safe enough for me to take a walk. I invited Ryan, who was sprawled on the floor in his room watching the holograms projected on the ceiling. I could tell he was restless and happy to come along.

Our block was pretty empty; I didn't even see any kids playing at the park down the street. My brother and I took a stroll around the corner and saw that there was actually a small wooded area across the street. It wasn't very large; it probably only existed to give the Capitol residents a sense of nature, since there was almost none of it around.

The two of us wandered into the trees and found that they were very uniform in appearance. Every branch was perfectly straight and there weren't any leaves on the ground. Still, we liked the reminder of home.

"Thirteen?" A voice to our right stage whispered. It was one of the other tributes. I only had an idea of who he was because I had seen him at training. He waved us over from a denser section of trees. I figured we didn't need to worry about going with him, since he'd have plenty opportunity to hurt us during the games, so we followed.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Oh, you don't know? I thought we had notified everyone. We're having a meeting."

"Who? For what?" Ryan interjected. The boy looked at him and told us that all of the tributes, well, almost all of us, had agreed to meet here today to brainstorm how we could all survive.

"I guess you two just got lucky showing up here. By the way, I'm Stockley, from Nine. You're from Thirteen, so that makes you… Stacey and Brian right?"

"It's Ryan. How did you know our names?" Stockley looked a little confused before answering.

"The Tribute listing. Our escorts all gave it to us. Didn't yours?"

"So, what it just has all our names on it?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah and which District we come from."

We arrived at a tiny clearing. The small forest must have been deeper than I was able to see from my block, because I couldn't even see the edge of the treeline from where we stood. In front of us were most of the other tributes. The only ones I knew were Henry and Chickie, from the train ride. They waved at us.

Everyone formed a warped kind of circle, with the boy that had been dragged away during training for trying to kill himself, standing next to me and a girl with blonde hair that was so light it was almost white standing on the other side of Ryan. They introduced themselves as Corey, from One, and Angel, from Four. Stockley took a spot across from us, next to two girls who said their names were Goldie, also from Nine, and Mckenna, from Three.

"Well, I guess it looks like we're just missing Two and Five." It was clear that Stockley had taken on the leader position with the rest of the tributes. I didn't mind, neither did any of the other girls by the looks on their faces. He was pretty good looking after all.

When the remaining members finally joined us, Stockley started the discussion. I followed the idea of a few other kids and sat down on the ground. It looked like we were going to be there for a while. I wondered how long it would be though before our escorts started looking for us. I couldn't imagine Piece would like that we were conspiring with the other tributes.

Nobody had much to bring to the table. The brainstorming session was a bust. At one point a girl, Avia, from Six, suggested that we all just kill each other then to avoid the bloodbath that waited for us. That option was immediately shot down.

After a while, it was getting dark and Ryan and I got up to go back to our house. Pierce was probably passed out in his room. I guessed he really couldn't care less about us after all. On our way through the maze of trees, I felt someone lightly grab hold of my wrist. I stopped and turned to find Stockley.

"Stockley? Is something wrong?" Ryan stopped with me and was watching the light haired boy in front of us.

"Oh, uh, well no. I just wanted to give you my copy of the tribute list. I know the games start tomorrow, but…" He glanced at Ryan. "I don't know. I thought it might help, since your escort didn't give you one."

"Oh, thanks Stockley." He didn't move away. "I'll take a look at it."

"Ok," He hesitated before pivoting in the other direction, back to the rest of the group.

"Weird guy," Ryan commented as we continued on our way.

"I think he's just trying to be friendly."

"Yeah, before he kills us." That fact put brought down my mood. We could die tomorrow, or wind up killing somebody. I wasn't sure which was worse.

When we got back to our house, Pierce was passed out on the couch, drink in hand. I walked over and took it from him, dumping it in the kitchen sink. Ryan ha already gone to his room when I reentered the living room, so I followed him up and knocked on his door. When I heard him respond for me to come in, he was lying on his bed, string out the window.

"Hey."

"Want some company?"

"Yeah, sure." I climbed on the bed with him and propped a pillow up behind me so I could lean against the headboard. The lights were off in the room and, since the sun was going down, there was hardly any light at all streaming through the window.

"Are you scared?" It had been a few minutes since either of us had said anything, so his questions made me jump a little.

"Yeah." Of course I was scared. I was terrified. The next few days would decide our fates, if not the very next day. How would I die? Would it be quick? I hoped so. "You?"

"Yeah."

"I won't let anything happen to you."

"No. We need to watch out for each other." He turned to face me, even though I could hardly make out the features of his face. "If there's no hope for me. If I-If…." He had to clear his throat. "You need to leave me behind."

"Ryan, you know I can't do that. You're my baby brother."

"I just mean, if you can make it out, just do it." I didn't want to talk like that anymore, so I just nodded, closed my eyes and lay my head back against the headboard.

Pierce woke us before dawn, obviously confused that we were both in Ryan's room. I had fallen asleep there. It wasn't strange to us; growing up Ryan would sometimes crawl into my bed if he was having a bad dream, since our dad's door was usually closed and I left mine open just for him. Apparently though, it was strange in the Capitol. Pierce looked a bit scandalized. He continued ordering the Avoxes around, to get us ready for the last days of our lives.

All of the tributes had been given uniforms to wear for the games, leading me to believe that I wouldn't be killed off immediately. I would have to fight for my life. The uniforms were flexible, with a simple black t-shirt, long black pants, matching black boots, and a rain jacket built for chilly weather. I wasn't sure if there was a reason they gave us these specific clothes to serve a purpose, or if the outfit was generic enough to give to boys and girls that whoever was planning this thought it would be good enough.

Our car was waiting for us outside, once again, and I could see a few other tributes sliding into their own. Ryan, Pierce and I got in the car and it pulled away, back towards the center of the city. Eventually it brought us to the City Hall, where a hovercraft was waiting to take us to the arena where we would die.

As Ryan and I walked onto the craft, I saw that there were several other tributes already seated and buckled in. A Capitol official was walking to each of them and sticking a needle into their arms. I over heard that they were injecting trackers into them. I wasn't sure why they would need to track us if we were going to essentially being in a cage and would be dead in a few days. Still, I took a seat next to Ryan and held out my arm when the official stood in front of me. He wasn't very gentle when he jabbed the needle in my arm. I figured he was probably happy we would all be dead soon. Did everyone in the Capitol hate the Districts?

After a while, the craft filled up with other tributes, the door closed and I felt the jolt that meant we had taken off. This was it.


	8. Chapter 8

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 8

Ten.

I stood on a pedestal, several feet away from Ryan. The sun was struggling to peek through the thick clouds, onto our squinting faces. All of the surviving tributes stood on identical pedestals, equally spaced out in a circle. In the center of the circle stood a giant structure, resembling a cornucopia. It made sense in the Capitol's sick way. A cornucopia was filled with food to help people prosper. This cornucopia was filled with weapons, to help US prosper.

Nine.

Ryan and I had been separated when our hovercraft landed at a starch white building on the outskirts of the Capitol. The room I was taken to was just as bleached looking as the outside. I couldn't imagine how hard the Avoxes must have worked to keep it this way. In the center of the room was a person-sized tube. I assumed it was meant for me. I was right. A single official stood next to the tube, waiting for me. There was a clock counting down from thirty on the wall. The numbers took up about half the wall, so I had no excuse for not knowing how much time I had left before I was hurled into a death match.

Eight.

It seemed almost immediately I was told to step into the tube, where the floor began to rise, taking me up with it. It brought me to my pedestal, which was situated outside. My surroundings look familiar, but I couldn't quite place them. I looked over to Ryan to see how he was handling all this. He just looked nervous to me.

Seven.

I saw Henry and Chickie a few pedestals away from me. They looked stony-faced, but their eyes gave away their fear. Stockley stood not far away from them, in a prepared stance, as if he was ready to dart to the cornucopia as soon as the clock finished counting down. I wasn't really sure why he didn't race off to the pile of weapons before it finished.

Six.

A boy on the other side of the circle, from Twelve I think, sprang off his pedestal. It seems he had the same idea I did. As soon as his feet touched the ground though, a BOOM sounded in the arena and smoke billowed to the sky. Where the boy had stood, there was only a gaping wound in the dirt. The girl who stood on the pedestal next to him, from his District, let out a shrill scream. She collapsed on her own pedestal and continued screaming and started to cry.

Five.

A voice that rang above our heads had been counting down along with the numbers that glowed at the entrance of the cornucopia. I saw as some of the younger children began to cry as the realization of what was happening started to sink in all over again. I glanced back at Ryan to see how he was taking everything. He took a similar stance as Stockley. I figured I should do the same, if I was going to stand a chance in these games. With any luck, I'd win without killing anybody.

Four.

My heart was racing and the sound of the blood pumping through my head was drowning out everything else around me.

Three.

I grew more restless with every second that passed. My feet itched with the urgency to run for…something.

Two.

The cobblestones mixed with an asphalt ground, looking unkempt but still well traveled. There were buildings around us all. They looked so unlike the buildings in the Capital; they looked so familiar.

One.

I knew where I was.

Zero.

Most of the younger kids stayed on their pedestals, too afraid of the bombs around them. I guessed the bombs were meant to keep us from jumping off too soon. I, on the other hand, dashed off toward the cornucopia. Ryan wasn't far ahead of me. He was taller, so he had longer legs and could run faster. Some of the other tributes were quickly making their way to the mound of weapons too.

I picked up the first thing I reached: a pot…fantastic. I picked up some kind of cord next, I was glad that would probably be more helpful. Ryan was more successful with his bounty. He had made it all the way to the mouth of the cornucopia and grabbed a thin blade, a small hammer, and a canteen.

He looked like he was going to go for more supplies, but I knew taking too much would weigh him down. He didn't get the chance though, because as he bent down to pick up an axe, I saw a girl swing a sword in his direction. I called out to him and he turned around, jabbing outward with his blade. It hit its target, in her stomach. Ryan stood in shock for a moment, before he was forced out of his stupor by a younger boy swinging another sword at him. He jabbed again and the other boy fell. Again, Ryan stepped back, in shock. My eyes darted around, for any more dangers. Seeing a few others scramble around for weapons and start swinging blades, I sprinted forward, grabbed Ryan's sleeve and pulled him away, into the maze of buildings.

"Stacey! Where are we going?" I almost couldn't hear him, with the wind rushing against my ears. He struggled against my grip, but I held him tightly, making a bee-line for my destination. After a few moments, I felt him surrender and run alongside me, so I let his sleeve go.

Suddenly, something hit me in the waist, hard. I could feel myself almost do a flip in the air from the force of my impact. I hadn't hit a wall, other wise my nose would probably be bleeding and I'd be sore in more places than just my gut. Ryan was trying to help me up, but wasn't doing a very good job at it. I looked up from my place sprawled out on the ground to see him attempting to fend off a girl wielding some kind of club. She moved to swing at us again, but was cut short when something pointy appeared in her sternum. She looked down, as if she was surprised, and dropped to the ground.

A boy, not much older than me, stood behind her crumpled body. He pulled his sword from her back and wiped it on his pants. He made it look very casual, but I could sense his urgency in his body language.

"We need to get out of here," he told us.

"You're not gonna kill us?" Ryan asked.

"I'd rather not. Do you guys know where you're going?" It took me a moment to get up and compose myself.

"Yeah, this way." I led them towards where Ryan and I had been running to before we were stopped. When we arrived, I threw the door open and was followed by our new companion. Ryan stood in the doorway.

"Is this…" He looked around, not just into the building we had arrived at, but all of our surroundings.

"Yeah. It's home." I gave him a small smile, before he took three long strides inside and embraced me.

"But I thought….Weren't they gonna…" He clearly didn't understand what I had realized.

"Ryan, they still expect us to kill each other. This isn't our real house, at lease, I don't think so." I looked around. Everything was perfect. The only thing missing was Dad. "It's like some copy of home."

"How did they…?" He glanced around, searching for any inconsistencies. Like me though, I'm sure he found nothing out of the ordinary. Even the dishes in our sink were dirty.

"Shut the door!" Our companion stage whispered to us from his new spot in the living room. He was ducked under a window as I quickly shut the front door, careful not to slam it. Then I heard shouting. Ryan and I ducked below the small window that sat alongside the door and waited for the voices to pass. When we were sure they had, we crawled over to where the boy was sitting on the floor, unmoved from his hiding spot.

He smiled and waved us closer. I was still wary of him, even if he did save our lives, but I saw his weapon was sitting a reasonable distance away from him, out of reach. We scooted closer and I reached out my hand for him to take.

"Hi, I'm Stacey and this is Ryan. We're from Thirteen."

"Hi, I'm Blade. Two."


	9. Chapter 9

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 9

I wasn't sure how much time we had before the others came looking for us, if they ever did, but we were taking advantage of the short time we had. Ryan spread out on the couch, while I ransacked the cabinets for food. That was the only inconsistency with this copy-house: there was nothing to eat. I don't mean my real house ever had an abundance of food, but at least we never starved. With nothing to eat here, I wasn't sure how long we would be able to put off running into the others.

"There's nothing," I stated as I entered the living room, where the boys were now watching the window for anyone who might run by.

"Yeah, I didn't expect them to feed us," Blade responded, as he gazed out the window.

We had taken inventory of what each of us were able to collect before we had to leave the cornucopia. I had my pot and cord, and Ryan had his knife, canteen and hammer. I don't know how but, somehow Blade had picked up a utility belt that was almost fully stocked, with his sword, a canteen, a whip, and a pickax. I wasn't sure if those things were all in the belt when he picked it up, but he was also carrying a net that was slung around his shoulders.

"So now what do we do?" Ryan asked. I wasn't sure how to answer him because I wasn't sure of the answer. I looked to Blade.

"You have any ideas?" He shook his head.

"There's only so much time before they come looking for us. We might as well beat them to the punch."

"You mean going out to find them? And then what? Kill them?"

"It's do or die kid."

"I'm hardly a kid. I'm seventeen. How old are you?" I couldn't remember what his biography said on the paper Stockley had given me.

"Eighteen." I grunted, not knowing how else to argue with him.

"Where do you think they went?"

"Not sure. Where would you go?" I looked around my copy house. He got the message.

"Ok, I'm assuming this whole place looks like Thirteen?" Ryan and I nodded.

"What we've seen anyway."

"Maybe the rest of them haven't figured out that we're in an actual place. They might go looking for food and water. Shelter seems pretty abundant. We're gonna have a hard time hunting them down."

"Please don't say that," I wished he chose a different set of words.

"Say what?"

"Hunt. I don't want to hunt them."

"Tough. Unless you wanted to die," He looked over at me, questioningly.

"No."

"Well then, you're gonna have to get your hands a little dirty." I frowned and looked out the window again. We sat there for a moment.

"Well," Ryan stood up. "No time like the present." I watched him walk to the front door, open it and look back at us, waiting for us to join him. I scrambled up and made my way to the door with Blade.

I stuck my head out the door and looked around some more. We hadn't heard anyone nearby for at least fifteen minutes, but I wasn't going to take any chances. I didn't see anything or anyone suspicious, so I ventured outside. The others followed.

"Which way?" I asked.

"Maybe they've all left the cornucopia? We can see if they left anything," Ryan suggested. Blade and I agreed and we started walking the way we came.

It was strange to be walking through the streets I had grown up on, but have people, children, coming after me to kill me. As I walked past familiar houses, I kept expecting my neighbors to step outside and greet me. But no one was here, at least, not anyone friendly. If someone stepped out of any of these doors, I would probably have to fight for my life.

We reached the cornucopia; it was in the District square, where the meeting took place that decided Ryan and my fates. The pedestals that we had all stood on were so far away from the structure in the middle that they were almost at the edge of square. The houses started only a few feet away.

I was surprised to find that a lot of weapons and supplies were left at the mouth of the cornucopia. Most of the swords were gone, but there were plenty of others, as well as a good number of supplies. I grabbed a canteen of my own and searched the pile for anything that might look easy to carry.

I heard shuffling behind me and hardly had enough time to duck before an axe swung where my head had been. A blonde girl, a bit younger than me, was wide-eyed and swinging furiously. I wished we had checked our surroundings better before letting down our guard. I fell backward at some point, onto the jagged edges of tools and weapons. It was uncomfortable, but my bigger fear was of getting decapitated.

I was about to scream, but then the girl was knocked off her feet by Ryan. He had barreled into her, making her lose her grip on the axe. She lay on the ground, defenseless and started begging for her life. Ryan stood over her as she started to cry and attempt to crawl away. I wasn't sure what Ryan was going to do. I saw Blade approach the pair and stand next to my brother.

"What do you wanna do?" Blade asked him. Ryan stood for a moment longer, looking at the girl, who had crawled backward as far as she could and was leaning against the side of the cornucopia, still crying.

"I…" I could tell he really didn't know if he was ready to kill anybody.

"Ryan, you don't have to," of course I was going to protect him, even his psyche. I had gotten up and stood on his other side. The girl never stopped pleading with us.

"Get up," Ryan told her. She immediately complied, but didn't move otherwise.

"What's your name?" It was Blade who asked the question. With a shaky voice, she replied.

"Cher."

"Where are you from?"

"One."

Ryan didn't look like he was about to attack her, so I waved her over and she silently followed my command. Even though I felt like it should have been more of a suggestion. I didn't want anyone to be afraid of me, even though it would probably work better for me if they were. She gripped my hand as I extended it for her. IT was strange to think that only minutes ago, she was trying to take off my head.

"Do you know if anyone's nearby?" I asked her. She shook her head. I guessed there wasn't really any way of knowing if she was telling the truth, unless someone came running out to kill us, so we had to just accept her answer.

I gave her axe back, internally praying that she didn't decide to follow through and kill us all anyway. I waited a beat before turning away from her to collect some more supplies before we left. The rest of the time went by without further incident. In the end, we had each grabbed a backpack and filled it with as much as we could carry. Blade had the most, since he was the strongest.

"Where are we going?" Cher piped up. When she wasn't trying to kill you, she was actually kinda cute. I didn't know the answer to her question, so I looked to Blade. I'm not sure he really knew the answer either, but he improvised at least.

"Uh, this way," he said as he turned around and began walking in some obscure direction. After a few minutes of walking, I picked up my pace to catch up with him.

"Do you really have a plan or what?" I asked him in a hushed tone, so Ryan and Cher wouldn't hear.

"That would be a negative."

"Super." I tried to concoct a plan as we continued walking. After a short while, I saw bloodstains along the walls of the houses and small businesses. I guessed someone had been killed, or at least seriously wounded here. I didn't really want to find out for myself.

It was getting dark, so I called the others into a building that looked like the blacksmith's shop back home. It was the same on the inside, so I had an idea of where everything was. Even though there wasn't any food stocked in the cabinets, it looked like blankets were still there. Maybe the Capitol just intended for us to starve, not freeze to death.

I laid a wool blanket on the dusty floor and we all sat. I wasn't sure what we were going to do about food. None of us had ever hunted, I didn't think. It looked like we were going to go hungry tonight. As I was situating my backpack to get some sleep, Cher pulled something out of her jacket pocket. It crinkled and I wondered if someone outside our shelter could hear it, it was so loud.

"What is that?" Ryan asked through the growing darkness. I heard Cher's hesitation.

"Um, a snack bar." Blade shot up from where he lay.

"How'd you get that?" I couldn't see her, but I could her the discomfort in her voice.

"Um, my chaperone gave it to me. She was nice. I miss her. She gave one to Corey too." My eyes were adjusting to the dim lighting and I saw Ryan eyeing the small package of food Cher was holding. I could imagine his mouth was watering. Cher looked at her food and at the three of us eyeing her.

"Did you, um, want some?" I knew she probably didn't really want to share, but I was too hungry to be polite. The three of us greedily accepted and we broke the bar into quarters before chowing down.

When we finished, seconds later, we were still hungry, but laid down for whatever sleep we could manage to get.


	10. Chapter 10

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 10

When morning came, our small group gathered our things, checked to see if anyone was waiting to ambush us outside and continued walking in the direction we had been the previous night. Blade told me discreetly that the only plan he had was to just continue to head towards the outskirts of town and hope to avoid getting killed. I had to agree. Maybe if we stayed at the outside of wherever we had been dropped, we could stay alive longer.

As we walked, I heard hushed conversation coming from Ryan and Cher and was glad that he was comfortable talking to someone and keeping his mind off of our terrible situation. What was wrong with me, thinking that a competition sponsored by the Capitol would be a good thing?

After a few hours of walking, I noticed that the scenery was changing. I no longer recognized the houses that surrounded us. It didn't look like District 13 at all. A mile or so away, I could see a field. The crops looked to be a yellow-gold, but other than that I couldn't really tell what it was from that distance. I pointed the change out to my group and we continued our travel in that direction, always being wary of any possible ambush.

When we reached the edge of the crop field, I saw that it was some kind of grain growing among acres of land. There were some small buildings in the distance, but the only way to them appeared to be to make our way through the grain field. Blade was worried there might be other waiting in the crops, but we didn't have much choice.

"So, tell me about yourself," Blade said when we were about halfway through our obstacle.

"What do you wanna know?"

"Anything I guess. Ryan's your brother right? Do you have any other siblings?" His question struck me.

"Uh, no…it's just Ryan." It was just the two of us. We had to win. "You?"

"I've got a little sister, Michelle; she's too young for the Games. She's eight." His relief for his sister being underage was evident. "I'm sorry you were both chosen."

"Yeah…me too." I glanced back at my brother to see him walking side by side with Cher. They weren't talking anymore, but they didn't look uncomfortable either, so I turned back around. "It's funny too. When they picked our names, I was so excited, thinking we had a double shot of winning…I guess I was right. But I thought we'd both be going back home too." I didn't think Blade would have anything to say in response, and I was right; he didn't say anything.

It seemed like a miracle when the four of us arrived at the other end of the grain field without being attacked. I was sure our lives would be at risk. The town beyond the field looked much like my own, though I wasn't sure what part of District 13 this was supposed to resemble.

"Where are we?" Cher asked from behind me.

"I think…" Blade began, then paused. We all looked around. I could see more fields in the distance. They looked like more grain.

"Are we in Nine?" I asked to no one in particular. Nine was the main producer of grain, so I thought it would make sense. Were all the Districts represented here?

"I think so," Blade responded, looking in another direction.

"What do we do?" Ryan asked. Instead of answering, I started to make my way towards the houses a little farther away from the field. Maybe there was food or water nearby. The first building I approached had a door that was hanging on the hinges.

As soon as I stepped inside, I felt tension on my ankle and my head hit the floor, hard, as my body was flung upwards, feet first. I wasn't sure if I screamed, but my vision was flickering into black as I heard the others run to me. I think they were shouting. I felt myself moan, as I saw a shadow approach me. It definitely wasn't any of my allies.

"Stacey?" I only managed another moan in response.

I felt hands on the back of my head and along my back. Whatever trap had taken hold of my ankle was removed and I was lowered to the ground. My head was killing me. I opened my eyes after a moment of being laid on the floor and saw my companions staring down at me, as well as another familiar face.

"Stockley?" I blinked to clear my vision. My eyes couldn't focus very well and I occasionally saw double, but I could make out who our new companion was.

"Oh man, Stacey, if I had known you were in the area…"

"What happened?"

"You walked into my trap." I looked around some more and saw that there was some kind of contraption set up along the doorway that I walked through. It looked like a rope had tied itself around my ankle and dragged me upward. I must have smacked my head on the way. I wasn't sure if that was intentional on his part. I tried sitting up and felt a wave of nausea hit me.

"Ugh…I think I have a concussion." The only person I had known that ever had a concussion before was my dad during a construction accident. He was overseeing the building of a new house in my District. He would know how to tell….a lot of good that did me.

It was decided that Stockley was a friendly and not about to try and kill us all. Even if he did get the urge, he was greatly out-numbered. But he showed us to a more comfortable room with couches and a fireplace.

"Could we light a fire?" Ryan asked, reaching for some pieces of wood that were already inside.

"I wouldn't recommend it." Stockley told him. "It'd make it easier for the others to track us down." Ryan's shoulders slumped and he backed away from the fireplace.

"Maybe that's a good thing," I heard Blade mutter from the corner of the room. I looked at him questioningly. "It would just make all this go faster. Get it over with already."

In the end, we decided not to light a fire, despite the growing chill in the air. When I left District 13, it had been late spring. What season was the Capitol trying to create in the little Hell?

"Stockley," I began as he bent down to reassemble his contraption. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you have been hiding?" He chuckled a bit before answering me.

"I thought I was hiding. Anyway, this is my District and I thought it might be more effective to make a trap and wait out the games in some kind of safety." I guess it made sense.

I looked around the room and saw Blade glancing out the window, searching for any potential threats outside. Cher and Ryan sat on a beat-up old couch along the wall. They looked awfully cozy for a pair of kids who were in a fight to the death.

I had grown tired from our trek and getting caught in a trap, so I lay down on the only other couch in the room. It was starting to get a little dark outside, making me drowsy. The last thing I remembered was watching Stockley position a noose on the floor in front of the door.

I woke up with sunlight beaming through the windows. Did it ever rain? I heard quiet footsteps coming from the front door and froze. I took a quick head count of my companions and found that, while almost everyone had found a sleeping spot throughout the room, Stockley was missing. Relaxing a little, I followed the footsteps toward the kitchen.

He was standing at a small counter by the stove, skinning what looked like it might have been a rabbit. Seeing me walk in, he smiled before continuing to guy the creature.

"How long have you been up?" I stage whispered so as not to wake the rest of our party.

"Long enough to catch this poor sucker," he answered, motioning with the skinless rabbit in his grip. There was already a pan on the stove with a small fire built under it. It looked like at least one of us had listened during training.

Some time later, the others began to wake up. Perhaps the smell of freshly fried meat stirred their stomachs. While it cooked, I had gone outside and picked whatever safe plants I could find. I knew Ryan didn't like vegetables but maybe he would be hungry enough to choke some down.

I was right about Ryan. He ate some of the greens. It was clear he didn't swallow them for their savory taste though. Cher, Stockley, and Blade ate much more eagerly, practically shoving the small pieces of meat and leaves in their mouths. The second favorite food item (next to the rabbit of course) were the raspberries I found a few houses away.

"What had you been doing before we met you here?" Blade asked Stockley. The blonde leaned back, picking in between two of his teeth.

"Well, after the cornucopia, I grabbed Goldie, the girl from my District, and we ran."

"I don't see her anywhere."

"Yeah…yesterday we were ambushed." He wiped a red stain from the raspberries from the corner of his mouth. "She didn't make it."

We sat in silence, quietly mourning the fallen friend that we would never know.

"We should get moving." I announced as soon as a suitable amount of mourning had been had.

"Where can we go?" Cher asked.

"There are still others out there. If we don't track them down, then they'll just come and find us."

Blade stood and grabbed the few weapons we had collected, preparing for our journey to who knew where. Ryan and Cher moved to the window and peeked outside.

"How many do you think are left?" Cher asked to no one in particular.

"Not sure…maybe they posted a list at the cornucopia?" Stockley answered. "Or maybe-"

Suddenly the television across the room turned on. I glanced at the plug that lay on the floor, not connected to any power source, before approaching it. I felt everyone else's eyes on me as I got closer. Then, after a moment of static, a trumpet started playing over an image of the Panem seal. After a moment, the music stopped and a woman appeared on the screen. I recognized her from the television broadcast that originally told the Districts about meeting for the name drawings. Her hair looked different and she was wearing an absurd amount of makeup.

"Good day Tributes, and congratulations. There are currently eight of you still competing for the title of the first Hunger Games Champion. In order to encourage you all to put more effort into this competition, the arena's borders will begin to shift closer to the center every half hour. Any of you unfortunate enough to be too near to the edge of the arena will feel the effects of the shield surrounding you. You may find this encounter to be quite shocking." The woman gave the camera a little smirk, before continuing on about other news of things happening in the Capitol, as if we cared. I wasn't sure how they would manage to move it without running the risk of our escape.

"We need to go back to the Cornucopia! What if we're near the barrier?" Cher's face was panic stricken and I felt a pang of sympathy for her. If she kept this up, she wouldn't make it to the end. I just hoped she wouldn't bring the rest of us down with her.

"I think we'll be ok," I told her. "I mean, we can see all the way to the other end of the District, so I doubt the border's nearby." I glanced out the window to make sure I wasn't lying to her by accident, and sure enough, I could see for miles in every direction.

A moment later an ear-piercing screech sounded off and we all dropped to the floor from the pain. The screech sounded off three times before stopping and we could bear to stand again.

"What was that?" I asked no one in particular. Then, as if on cue, a loud rumbling accompanied an earthquake, and we struggled to stay on our feet. Stockley, Ryan, and I managed to make our way to the doorway, where we were able to see, what looked like a mudslide. About a half a mile to our left, a wall of dirt and mud was travelling to where we were standing.

"Run!" I wasn't sure who shouted it, but we all obeyed. I grabbed Ryan's hand and ran as best as I could in the opposite direction.

"Wait! Cher!" Ryan stopped suddenly and I was almost thrown backwards. I looked back to the doorway we had been standing in and saw Blade attempting to get Cher to her feet. She must not have been able to keep her balance with the quaking, but the mudslide was closing in fast.

Stockley, who had stopped right next to us darted back to the house and grabbed Blade's arm, shouted something at him, and tugged. Eventually, he succeeded in pulling Blade away, despite his protests.

From where Ryan and I stood, we could see everything. The mudslide encroached on the house and we could hear crunching, as the planks of wood were lost among the rubble. Cher stood in the doorway, sobbing as she tried to crawl out of the house, unable to find her footing. She had barely made it out of the house before the barrier struck her. Her body convulsed and I could smell her hair burning from electricity.

I hadn't realized I was screaming and crying until Stockley rejoined us and grabbed my hand in his free one. We ran back towards the center of the Districts, where the Cornucopia stood.

I wasn't sure how long we ran before the rumbling and earthquake stopped, but when it did, we all collapsed to the floor, exhausted. Ryan sat beside me, crying and moaning Cher's name. I guess he liked her more than I realized.

"We have to go. It won't be long until the barrier moves again," Stockley gasped.

"Just….another minute," I replied. "it won't come back for another half hour." I stood and glanced around. I could see the Cornucopia about a mile away. I couldn't spot any other tributes, so either they had been caught by the barrier, or they were hiding. I guess they might be on the other side of the clearing, out of sight too.

But I suppose we were going to learn where they were, because I had to win.


	11. Chapter 11

The First Hunger Games

Chapter 11

Blade, Stockley, Ryan, and I hid behind a cluster of bushes, trying to see if any of the remaining tributes trickled into the clearing. Some time had passed and I was sure the barrier would close in any minute.

"There!" Ryan whispered, pointing at tree across the clearing. I couldn't make out who it was, but I did see a lock of long blonde hair. I remembered a few girls with blonde hair, but I could only remember one with hair down to her waist. The girl from Eight. I couldn't remember her name though. I voiced my thoughts to the rest of the group and we eventually saw another girl not too far from us. Neither girl appeared to see us, but we stayed cautious.

It wasn't long before we heard the same screech sounded off from before. Knowing what to expect this time, we were slightly less affected by the pain in our heads. Then came the rumbling of the barrier closing in. We could see, in the distance, the wall of dirt being kicked up by its movement. It looked far enough away right now though, that it wouldn't run us over just yet.

As we waited for the walls to stop, I watched the other tributes we had spotted. They didn't seem to be in great condition. They looked the way our group probably did when the first siren went off: on the ground, writhing in pain. They got up as soon as the rumbling ceased and took in their surroundings, I guess to see if anyone snuck up on them in their moment of weakness.

"We have to make a move. I'd rather go down fighting than get run over by the barrier," Blade told us as we recovered from the most recent onslaught.

"I agree," Stockley said as he looked over the clearing. "We can jump the two girls out there, but there's still one more tribute missing….does anyone know who?"

"It's not like they gave us a list of who to kill," I chimed in. "Let alone who's already dead." It felt strange to be talking about dead kids who were my age, whom I had talked to only a week ago.

We eventually decided it was best just to get it over with and take the two girls by surprise. I hoped it was quick; I didn't even like thinking about what we were about to do. Our group started making our way towards the second girl we had seen, since she was closer. We lost sight of her a few times, but continued in the same direction.

When we reached the spot we had been sure she had been, we had a hard time finding her. It was like she saw us coming, but we were careful not to be seen, so it couldn't have been that.

"Stacey!" I rushed to where I heard Ryan's voice, afraid he was in danger and equally afraid his shout would attract attention. When I reached him, I saw the cause of his alarm. The girl we were hunting was face down in the mud, with her throat slit.

"Did you do this?" I knew it was stupid thing to ask, but it slipped out.

"I found her like this." Blade and Stockley found us a moment later and stopped in their tracks.

"Who did this?" Blade asked to no one in particular.

"It wasn't any of us." I told him.

"It must be the last tribute." Stockley deducted. The realization dawned on me that we might have just become the prey.

"Do you think he's watching us?" I whispered.

"It's possible….unless he saw the other girl across the field and went after her first," he added. We glanced around, searching for a face among the trees. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so we hunkered down and tried to make a new plan.

A few minutes passed and we heard a shrill scream. It wasn't the same screech that announced the closing of the barrier. This one was human and we watched across the clearing as a blonde head hit the ground. Unfortunately we couldn't see who her attacker was, so we still didn't know whom to look for.

"Anyone," Blade told me when I expressed my concerns. "We're the only ones left; anyone else we find is the enemy." He left out the fact that we were all enemies.

"Let's go get this guy," Stockley announced, before getting up from the ground and starting to walk towards the cornucopia.

"Wait! Are you crazy? He'll kill you!" Ryan jumped in front of the sandy haired boy to stop him.

"Look, if we don't confront him now, that barrier's gonna get us. We don't have much time," He pushed Ryan aside and marched on. After a moments deliberation, the rest of us followed, albeit reluctantly.

"We're here! Come get us!" I hated how upfront Stockley was being and I kept Ryan close to my side. I didn't want to think about how much danger I was getting us in.

A moment later, a light-brown haired boy stepped out the trees. His face was slimmer than I remembered and his face was harder. His tan line had shifted to match his sleeveless shirt. He must not have spent much of his time here inside.

"Henry," I said to him. He glanced in my direction. "What are you doing?"

"What I was brought here to do." He exhaled before continuing, "I plan on surviving this. I want to go home. If I have to kill every last one of you, then that's the way it is."

"Look, I'm sure we can figure something else out. It doesn't have to be this way," Stockley approached him, arms outstretched in submission. Henry held out a large menacing looking knife in front of him. It was still heavily stained with blood.

"Stay where you are. I've killed others, I'll kill you too."

"Please Henry, you don't have to! We don't want to hurt each other. We just want to go home," I tried to reason with him.

"Exactly! This is the way to do it."

"I don't believe that. There has to be a way—"

All of a sudden, Stockley snapped Henry's arm at an unnatural angle, forcing him to release the blade, which he caught mid-air and used to slice the boy's throat. I heard myself screaming and the other boys cursing in shock.

"What did you do?" I screamed at Stockley, who was still holding the dripping knife and was covered in Henry's blood.

"He was right, you know. This is the only way to get home. Who's next?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Stacey, you've got beauty, not brains. Let me summarize: You got played, so get ready to die."

I felt Ryan pull me farther away from Stockley and we began running. I found myself inside the cornucopia, not the best hiding place.

"Ryan why'd you bring me here?"

"I don't know! I panicked!" Rightfully so, but I could still think of better places to try and escape, preferably somewhere with more than one exit.

"Come out come out, wherever you are!" I heard Stockley call out from outside our hiding place. "Stacey, I know we have our differences, but maybe you and I can work something out. I'm sure I can convince the game keepers to let us both live."

"Bullshit," I heard Ryan under his breath.

We snuck behind a row of swords that was stacked towards the back. We both grabbed a weapons from nearby, in case our predator showed up.

"What do we do?" Ryan whispered.

"I don't know. We're trapped!"

We heard a crunch of leaves outside the mouth of the cornucopia and I peered around the rack of swords to see how far away Stockley was. Not far. I prepared myself to jump out and take him by surprise, but the surprise was on me as the rack we hid behind came crashing down on top of us.

"Gotcha!" He shouted and I screamed as I spotted Stockley through the disarray of weapons. My face stung with cuts from the swords on top of me and blood trickled into my eyes, affecting my sight.

I struggled to push the weight off of me and get up. It would appear swords weren't the only things that had fallen on me either, apparently a sack filled with something heavy was also among the objects preventing me from defending myself.

I managed to eventually make my way to the surface, only to come face to face with my enemy. I gripped my knife tighter, as a loud boom sounded from outside the cornucopia. It rocked us both almost off our feet, but we kept our eyes locked. It must have been the barrier moving again.

I swung my knife at Stockley, not really knowing whether or not I meant to kill or maim. I missed, but as I swung, I noticed my blade was freshly stained with red. I looked again quickly, to check that I hadn't actually hit my target, I hadn't. I was about to check if I cut myself, but my opponent came at me again. I was knocked to the ground and I lost my weapon. I scrambled to hide behind some fallen weapon racks, but was grabbed by the ankles and dragged towards the opening of the cornucopia.

"Let go! What're you doing?" I screamed at him.

"Just what I was brought here to do sweetheart. One of us is going home and that someone is going to be me."

I dug my fingers into the grass as Stockley dragged me, but couldn't get a good enough grip to stop him. Dirt built up under my fingernails and pebbles scraped my hands. But, before reaching outside, we stopped and Stockley landed on the ground next to me. I turned my face to him and saw the hilt of a knife stuck in his forehead.

I threw up.

I scrambled to my feet to find Blade standing a few feet away from me. He outstretched his hand.

"We have to go!" He shouted at me. Something outside was being very loud. I couldn't make out what it was, but it wasn't the same sounds as the barrier closing, a kind of whirring, like windmills. I almost took his hand, before remembering that Ryan had been hiding with me earlier.

"Ryan!" I spun around and ran towards the weapons rack we had hidden behind. It had fallen on us both. "Ryan! Where are you?" I pushed aside the fallen swords, knives, and shields that were piled around me.

I saw a hand amongst the rubble and cleared that area around it. Ryan's face came into view, but his eyes were closed. Why were his eyes closed? He should be alert for danger. I cupped his face in my hands, repeating his name, telling him to wake up. That's when I noticed the stain on my blade again. I looked down, where his shirt had been heavily stained. It stained his entire chest and abdomen.

I dug further in the pile around us, in an effort to free him. Surely I could save him if I could get him out of here. But as I began pulling at his arms, I saw the gash that had been made by my knife.

My knife.

I did this.

I killed my brother.

I felt Blade's hand on my shoulder and vaguely heard him telling me that we needed to go. Go where? We were the last ones left. It was him or me. I wished he would just make it quick and take whatever winnings he was owed. At least let me die with my brother.

I was sobbing as I felt myself being lifted from the ground. I screamed for my brother and clawed for freedom from my captor. He had a strong grip though and didn't let me go.

As we approached the mouth of our shelter, the strange noise grew louder. The sun beamed down on us as I was brought outside, blinding me. Hands grabbed at me, lifting me out of Blade's embrace. Where had they come from? Were the Games over? Had we both won?

My strength gone, I let the people do what they wanted with me, which was to take me to a helicopter. The last thing I wanted was to be brought back to the Capitol.

I sat on one of the small seats and was buckled in before we jolted into the air and away from the arena. I didn't recognize and of the landscape below as we flew to our destination, but that wasn't saying much; I had only ever really known my District. We landed in a forested area, that I assumed was not near the Capitol. From there, we boarded a large military-looking truck. Blade and I were given some MREs and water as we travelled for hours. No one answered any of our questions. They hardly even looked at us.

I was woken up by a door slamming and Blade nudging my shoulder.

"I think we're here," he told me and he glanced out the window.

"Where's here?"

"I'm not sure." He pushed the door open and stepped outside. "I don't recognize anything." Neither did I, in fact, the whole place looked like it was some burned down ghost town.

I spotted on of the people that had brought us here and jogged up to her. Maybe they would start answering my questions now.

"Hey! This isn't the Capitol. Where are we?" She didn't have to answer though, because the person she had been speaking to was my father.

"Stacey," he said my name as he enveloped me in a tight hug. I felt my knees give way under me and we both collapsed to the ground, crying.

"It's okay. You're safe now," he repeated in my ear, as he stroked my hair.

"But, Ryan. He's…." I couldn't finish my sentence. I choked on my words and couldn't breathe. "I'm sorry. I tried to- I' m sorry."

"Shh….I know." I felt his tears drip down my forehead, mingling with my own on my cheeks. "You're safe now."


	12. Epilogue

The First Hunger Games

Epilogue

One Year Later…

It took months for me to feel like any semblance of myself again. The Resistance had repeatedly tried to assure me that I was protected and that the Capitol couldn't reach us. Still, I had holed myself up in the living space I shared with my father. He too, tried to convince me to get outside every now and then, but it was pretty obvious I wasn't going anywhere.

Eventually Blade tracked down my living quarters and carried me outside. I didn't put up a fight and was forced to experience fresh air. As I lay in the patchy grass outside one of the large doors of the compound, he talked to me. Although I didn't acknowledge him, he updated me on the goings-on of the rest of the country, as told to him by the Resistance.

Apparently, the Games had been put on hiatus after our escape and some Districts were being punished for tribute insolence. My District, Thirteen, had taken the brunt of the Capitol's anger. Blade's own District, Two, made a deal with the Capitol and would offer volunteers for any future Games to be held, to be spared further punishment. It couldn't have been easy for them to do this, but District One heard wind of the bargain and made the same deal. Stockley, the traitor, had been labeled a disgrace to his family and his District disowned him, refusing to make a deal with the Capitol. His District, Nine, and all the rest of them had their rations cut even further and what little communications between Districts they had had been almost completely severed.

Eventually, I started moving around the compound and interacting with the various people involved with the Resistance. They all seemed to have some sense of purpose in this fight, forcing me to realize that I lacked any of my own.

"Hey boo boo," Kitty approached me one morning, in one of the dining halls. Claire was holding her big sister's hand, while Bobby was riding piggy-back.

"Hey."

"How you holding up?"

"Fine, I guess. What're you guys up to today?"

"I dunno. Maybe I can convince Mrs. Marcell to take care of these twerps if you wanted to go to the river?"

"Hey! I wana go too!" Bobby protested.

"Ok, ok. You guys can come," she told the children. "Stace? You coming?"

I gazed around the room. It was clearing out, as militants were preparing to return to their stations. All these people had somewhere they were needed, and I was going to waste my time sitting by the river? I looked back at my best friend and apologized.

"Sorry Kit. I think I actually have something I need to do," I told her as I stood to leave.

"Oh, ok. Another time then," She smiled at me as she turned to go outside with her siblings. After I saw her walk out one of the large doorways that led to the hall, I went the other direction, towards the Central Command section of the compound. After asking around, I finally located the person in charge of assigning jobs, Mr. Singer.

"Hello, Sir. My name's Stacey Burrows. I've been here for a while now and think it's time I took on a job." The words all came tumbling out, before I even had time to think. The wiry-looking man eyed me over his glasses before responding.

"Sweetheart," I could already tell this was going to be difficult. "I have a lot of things on my plate and don't have time to trouble myself with a simple job assignment. I suggest you see one of my assistants for-"

"Lester," a voice called from behind Mr. Singer. We both turned to the new arrival, my companion seemingly with ruffled feathers. "Don't you know who this is?" The man asked, motioning to me, or at least, I thought it was me.

"Sir?" Was all Mr. Singer seemed capable of uttering.

"This is Stacey Burrows!" I finally recognized the man as the school principal, Mr. Diggs, from District 13. He was a math teacher when I graduated, but became principal shortly afterwards.

"This young lady is one of the brave young tributes who helped us best the Capitol," he continued as strolled over to me and threw an arm over my shoulder. "You will make sure that you cater to her every need. Personally." I wasn't sure how the school principal could hold such sway over a top official in the Resistance, but thought it best to hold my tongue until this conversation was over.

"Y-yes sir. R-right away sir. Miss, please come with me and we'll sort out your work request."

Mr. Singer quickly ushered me away towards an office with large windows, as I looked back at Mr. Diggs, wondering how he had managed to convince this man so easily. It was more like he ordered him, really. Once we were both seated in the man's office and he began running through a list of possible job options, I felt the need to interrupt him.

"Excuse me, sorry, but who was that? I mean, I know him, but what does he do here?" Mr. Singer ogled at me, with his mouth hanging open slightly. Had my question really been so ridiculous?

"Miss, that was the Commander. He's the head of the entire Resistance."

"What? But I know him! He's a principal."

"Yes, that was his cover. But he's been in charge of this operation for years. Decades even. He took over after the last Commander stepped down."

"This is too weird…"

"Yes, well, we still have the matter of your job assignment. Now, I gave you some options. Any of them catch your eye?" I was too embarrassed to admit that I hadn't been listening to him.

"Well, I'm pretty good at building stuff. You know, like my dad."

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I know your father."

"Taylor Burrows? He was a carpenter back in Thirteen."

"Oh! Yes, I do know him! In fact he's one of our chief architects. I don't know why your last name didn't ring a bell. Yes, he leads all the expansion projects and scouts possible locations for future compound sites." I was pretty impressed with the position my father held with the Resistance and made a mental note to talk with him about it later.

"Then…maybe, could I work with him? He taught me everything I know and I used to help him in the shop back home." This seemed to trouble the man a bit, as he scrolled on his ratty-looking computer for a moment.

"Well, there aren't any open positions in that department, but if that what you want, and if the Commander approves it, I imagine there shouldn't be a problem. Of course, I'll have to speak to Mr. Burr- your father first as well." I beamed at the man, despite his earlier dismissal of me and got up to find my dad.

As I made my way to my living quarters, in search of my father, I passed the dining hall again. The TVs were on and broadcasting a video from the Capitol. I watched as prim woman, with a pinched face and too much make-up announced to the country that the Hunger Games would be returning the following year and would continue yearly as a show of solidarity for our country. She was smiling when the screen cut to black, and then static.

I felt a pain in my eyes and realized I hadn't blinked the entire time I was watching the broadcast and my mouth was dry from hanging open for several minutes. Before I knew I what I was doing, I found myself frantically searching for my father, eventually finding him making his way outside with some other officials.

"It's happening again dad! They're bringing it back!" I cried out as I crashed into him. He stared at me in wonder, not knowing what I was talking about.

"Who's doing what, honey?"

"The. Games. The Capitol." I tried to tell him through sobs that fought to break through my demeanor, but I could tell he still didn't really know what I was talking about.

"Sir, we just got a report that the Capitol has announced the reinstatement of the Hunger Games." I silently thanked the anonymous official who translated for me. I noticed she was wearing an earpiece and assumed that's where her information had come from. My father looked at me again, almost crazed.

"They won't get you here. They can't. We're part of the Resistance now." He embraced me. "We're gonna beat them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN:  
> Hi all. So this is the conclusion of this story. I'm so proud and happy to have finally completed one and so grateful to all of you who have joined me along the way. As always, please review with your thoughts.
> 
> For any of you who may have been wondering the ages of all of the tributes in the story, I've supplied a list of all of them, with their corresponding ages. I hope you all read my other stories, whether they've been posted already, or if they are posted in the future.
> 
> Cher (14); Corey (15)
> 
> Blade (18); Heather (12)
> 
> Fritzpatrick (13); Mckenna (15)
> 
> Guppy (12); Angel (14)
> 
> Evan (18); Claire (17)
> 
> Avia (12); Jet (17)
> 
> Birch (15); Wilhelmina (16)
> 
> Silk (14); Roughus (13)
> 
> Goldie (13); Stockley (18)
> 
> Henry (16); Chickie (15)
> 
> Carry (18); Pat (12)
> 
> Madison (16); Spot (15)
> 
> Stacey (17); Ryan (14)


End file.
